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ENDOWED  BY  THE 

DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 

SOCIETIES 


E  185.92 
1877 


1^^  llllliilllllili 

^         ^  a  00001  20775  9 


THE  NEGRO  PRO 


AN    ESSAY  ^ 


INDUSTRIAL,  POLITICAL  AND 
MORAL  ASPECTS 


The  Negeo  Eace 


THE    SOUTHERN    STATES. 

-ENTEJ)  UNDER  THE  LATE  AMENDMENTS  TO  TWI  FEDERAL 
CONSTITUTION. 


JBIT   vJ.    lE^.    K.^IjIjS. 


ATLANTA.  GA. : 

Tas.  p.  Harrison  &  Co.,  Pbintebs  and  Binders 

1877. 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 


E  185.^2, 


AN    ESSAY 


INDUSTRIAL,  POLITICAL  AND 
MORAL  ASPECTS 


The  Negko  Eace 


THE    SOUTHERN    STAT 


AS  PRESENTED  UNDER  THE  LATE  AMENDME 
CONSTITUTION. 


B-y    J-.    -U..    I?.^XjXj, 


ATLANTA,  GEORGIA: 
JAJIE3  P.  Habbisok  &  Co.,  Prikters  and  Bindeks. 
1877. 


/■ 


I 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  AT  THE  SOUTH 


In  viewing  the  complex  relations  of  human  society,  we 
oftimes  see  events  unfold  themselves,  which  in  their  incep- 
tion appear  trivial  and  unimportant,  yet  in  their  progress 
and  ultimate  development  may  assume  proportions  that 
challenge  attention  and  become  objects  of  profound  solici- 
tude. The  introduction  of  African  slavery  into  the  British 
Colonies  of  North  America,  was,  in  its  early  history, 
divested  of  all  sentiment.  The  moral  and  political  ques- 
tions which  subsequently  gave  rise  to  the  fiercest  agita- 
tion, and  which  has  shaken  the  American  Government  to 
its  very  foundations,  was  at  this  time  held  in  abeyance  ; 
and  the  slave  traffic  was  simply  regarded  as  any  q^her 
species  of  merchandise,  to  be  regulated  and  controlled  as 
the  interest  or  caprice  of  those  engaged  might  dictate. 

In  all  the  preceding  ages  of  the  past,  history  informs 
us  that  slavery  had  existed  in  some  form  or  other,  and  it 
only  appealed  to  the  moral  sense  of  mankind,  when  it  was 
brought  about  by  the  arbitrary  exercise    of  the   rights  of 
conquest,  accompanied  with  acts  of  oppression  and  cruelty, 
in    the   servitude    imposed    upon   its  hapless  victims.      In 
the  early  patriarchal  ages,  we  find    the  institution    of  sla- 
very firmly  rooted,  and  grounded,  in  their  domestic  econ- 
omy, and  the  prophets  and  law-givers  of  that  pure  and 
primitive  age,  who  were  honored  by    the    Most  High,  as 
the  keepers  of  His  oracles,  inveighed  not  against  it  as  "a 
league  with  death  aiid  a  covenant  with  hell,"  bi|t  regarded 
it  as  a  beneficent  institution,  that  promoted  the  wijlbeing 
of  society.     Greece  and   Rome  in   their  day  reared   the 
o^proudest  structures  of  national  glory,  and  the  light  of  thoir 
^civilization,  beaming  upon  us  through  the  mist  of  twenty 
.^  centuries,  reveals  the  fact,  that  slavery  was  an  integral  part 
^of  their  civil  polity.     The  feudal  system  known  in  history 
^  1 


4  THE    NEGRO   PROBLEM. 

as  the  great  political  institution  of  the  middle  ages,  and  in 
which  was  planted  the  germ  of  modern  civilization,  was 
actuated  and  supported  by  a  military  spirit,  which  was 
ostensibly  aimed  at  the  oppression  of  kings ;  yet  was  no 
less  instrumental  in  striking  down  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  making  them  vassals  to  the  rule  of  the  lordly 
baron.  Great  Britain,  the  nation  that  led  for  centuries 
the  van  of  civilization,  and  gave  to  later  generations  the 
great  charter  of  human  liberties,  set  mankind  the"example 
of  abducting  the  negro  from  his  native  haunts,  and  rearing 
the  system  of  African  slavery  in  her  distant  provinces. 

While  it  is  not  within  the  purview  of  our  purpose  to  de 
fend  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  it  existed  in  the  South- 
ern States,  either  upon  moral  or  political  grounds,  yet  we 
would  not  vindicate  the  truth  of  history,  in  passing  over  in 
silence  the  real  authors  of  an  institution  that  has  been  the 
theme  of  such  bitter  invective  at  the  hands  of  their  intol- 
erant and  hypocritical  descendants.  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut  were  among  the  first  colonies  to  introduce 
African  slavery  upon  their  soil,  and  conducted  the  new  en- 
terprise with  more  interest  and  zeal  than  any  of  their  sister 
colonies.  Massachusetts  in  particular  had  an  addition- 
al incentive  to  stimulate  her  to  engage  in  the  slave 
traffic;  for,  besides  the  demand  for  the  African  as  a  laborer 
to  till  her  soil,  she  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  the  shipping  in- 
terest among  the  colonies,  and  did  not  stop  at  that  early 
day  to  consider  "the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage,"  but 
at  once  fitted  out  her  ship  for  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  con- 
tinued this  species  of  merchandise  as  long  as  she  could  find 
a  market  for  the  so-called  "human  chattels."  Virginia, 
and  other  more  Southern  colonies,  entered  an  earnest  re- 
monstrance against  the  slave  trade,  and  raised  an  issue  with 
thfe  New  England  colonies  against  its  continuance,  which 
was  not  met  in  a  spirit  of  compromise  by  those  men, 
whose  descendants,  eighty  years  later,  began  a  sectional 
war  to  overturn  an  institution  their  fathers  had  been  mainly 
instrumental  in  setting  up. 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM,  0 

The  debates,  upon  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution, show,  •*  as  an  indisputable  fact,  that  the  Northern 
States  had  earnestly  and  zealously  espoused  the  cause  of 
slavery,  and  manifested  a  determination  to  perpetuate  the 
African  slave  trade,  so  lucrative  had  it  become,  and  so  grat- 
ifying to  that  spirit  of  mammon,  which  forms  the  distin- 
guishing type  of  the  Yankee  race,  and  becomes  "the  rul- 
ing passion  "  at  all  times,  and  under  all  circumstances. 
The  Southern  delegates,  in  the  Convention  of  all  the  States, 
called  in  1787,  to  form  a  Federal  Constitution  that  was  to 
supplant  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  and  "form  a  more 
perfect  Union,"  demanded  that  a  constitutional  prohibition 
be  incorporated  into  her  organic  law  they  were  called  to 
frame,  against  the  further  introduction  of  the  African  race 
into  the  States  of  America,  showing  an  earnest  conviction 
in  the  minds  of  the  Southern  people  of  the  impoHcy  of  the 
African  slave  trade,  and  an  evident  disposition  to  rid  them- 
selves of  slavery  as  a  domestic  institution.  This  proposi- 
tion, proceeding  from  the  Southern  delegates,  met  with 
decided  opposition  from  the  North,  and  the  conflicting 
opinions  were  only  reconciled  and  adjusted  by  incorporat- 
ing a  provision  extending  the  slave  trade  until  1808,  as  we 
find  it  inserted  in  the  Federal  Constitution  at  the  present 
time. 

When  this  franchise  expired  by  limitation,  and  the 
shrewd  calculating  Yankee  saw  that  the  slave  could  not  be 
profitably  employed,  where  the  labor  of  summer  was  con- 
sumed in  feeding  the  negro  through  the  winter,  he  began  to 
cast  about  for  the  means  of  getting  rid  of  him,  soon  entered 
the  role  of  philanthropist,  and  began  immediately  a  cru- 
sade against  the  rights  of  his  neighbor,  and  a  war  against 
the  settled  institutions  of  his  country.  It  is  a  well  authen- 
ticated fact  that  the  North  got  rid  of  slavery  upon  well  ma- 
tured convictions  of  interest,  based  solely  upon  economic 
grounds — a  settled  conviction  after  satisfactory  experiment 
that  it  was  unprofitable,  and  that  free  labor,  made  to  subsist 
itself  when  unemployed,  would  better  meet  the  demands  of 


6  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

Northern  industry.  In  short,  the  negro,  as  we  say  in  com- 
mon parlance,  would  eat  off  his  head,  bring  the  master  to 
poverty,  and  must  be  gotten  rid  of.  Hence  <-he  North 
adopted  gradual  emancipation — in  the  meantime  sending  a 
large  per  cent,  of  her  slaves  to  the  South  to  find  market 
for  a  chattel  that  had  proved  burdensome  and  unprofitable 
upon  her  bleak  and  barren  soil.  The  Puritans  of  the  North 
have  never  exhibited  a  spark  of  genuine  benevolence,  nor 
can  lay  any  just  claim  to  philanthropy  in  their  dealings  with 
any  race  or  people  who  controvened  their  interest,  or  in- 
curred their  displeasure. 

These  people,  in  the  opening  chapter  of  their  colonial 
history,  began  a  course  of  exasperation  against  a  neighbor- 
ing tribe  of  Indians  by  a  series  of  aggressions  upon  their 
rights,  and  when  culminated  in  a  deadly  feud,  th^y  gath- 
ered their  strength,  fell  upon  the  foe  in  an  unguarded  hour, 
and  signalized  an  easy  victory  by  exterminating  the  war- 
riors of  the  Pequod  nation,  and  capturing  and  enslaving 
their  defenseless  women  and  children.  Judge  Black,  who 
is  good  authority  oa  Puritan  history,  as  well  as  constitu- 
tional law,  says  in  a  late  review  of  the  practices  of  the  early 
Puritians,  that  "  it  became  a  settled  rule  of  public  and  pri- 
vate economy  in  Massachusetts  to  exchange  the  worthless 
Indians  they  had  enslaved  for  valuable  negroes,  cheating 
their  West  India  customers  in  every  trade." 

The  Puritan  fled  from  E-igland  under  the  belief  that  he 
was  the  victim  of  religious  persecution  by  the  established 
church,  and  set  up  in  the  New  World  his  own  peculiar  es- 
tablishment, where  he,  in  turn,  became  the  author  of  a  re- 
ligious bigotry,  and  intolerance  more  bitter  and  relentless 
than  any  he  had  suffered  in  the  Old  World.  The  Baptists, 
Catholics  and  Quakers  shared  in  the  most  frightful  perse- 
cu'ions  at  the  hands  of  these  bigots,  and  were  driven  from 
home,  abandoned  property,  and  all  the  associations  that  en- 
d  -ared  life  to  them,  to  find  a  safe  retreat  in  the  wilderness 
f.om  the  fury  of  their  assailants. 

The  arraignment  of  innocent  aaJ  lielpless  women  upon 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  / 

charges  of  witch-craft,  and  the  severity  of  punishment  in- 
flicted— oftentimes  the  hapless  victim  expiating  the  alleged 
crime  upon  the  gallows — stamps  the  Puritan  character  with 
cowardice,  superstition  and  cruelty  that  is  unequaled  in  the. 
last  century  by  any  people  who  lay  claims  to  Christian  civil- 
ization. If  the  history  of  the  anti-slavery  movement  at  the  _ 
North  could  be  resolved  into  its  basic  elements,  there  would 
be  doubtless  found  only  here  and  there  a  trace  of  real  phil- 
anthropy for  the  negro — felt  by  sentimental  women,  or 
reformers,  and  dreamy  imbeciles,  such  as  Theodore  Parker, 
Wendel  Phillips  and  John  Brown. 

The  pro-slavery  sentiment  had  taken  no  firm  hold  or  deep 
rdot  in  the  Southern  mind,  until  the  agitation  of  the  subject 
by  Northern  fanatics  had  aroused  a  feeling  of  righteous 
indignation  in  ^he  bosom  of  Southern  men,  whose  charac- 
ters were  assailed  upon  all  occasions,  and  rights  of  property 
in  slaves  resisted  by  mob  violence,  in  defiance  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  country.  And  the  opinion  is  not 
simply  conjecture,  that  emancipation  would  have  begun  and 
been  consumated  a  half  century  ago  at  the  South  if  North- 
ern fanaticism  had  not  invoked  the  demon  of  discord,  and 
caused  it  to  shed  its  baleful  glare  upon  the  scene.  Such 
statesmen  as  Jefferson,  Randolph,  Clay,  Pinckney  and 
others,  saw  at  an  early  day  that  slavery,  both  as  a  political 
and  econt)mic  question,  furnished  a  problem  of  difficult 
solution  to  the  Southern  people,  and  were  ready  to  coun- 
sel their  people  to  rid  themselves  by  gradual  emancipation 
of  an  institution,  the  maintenance  of  which  was  fraught  with 
so  much  trouble  and  danger  in  the  distant  future.  But, 
unfortunately  for  the  South,  two  events  arose  at  this  junc- 
ture, which  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Southern 
slavery. 

The  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  with  the  new  and  prof- 
itable field  of  enterprise  it  opened  for  the  employment  of 
slave  labor,  followed  in  the  next  decade  by  the  bitter  and 
uncompromising  spirit  with  which  slavery  was  attacked  by 
the  North,  gave  the  institution  strength  and   permanency 


8  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

that  prolonged  its  existence  for  fifty  years,  and  made  its 
extinction  only  possible  by  the  stern  arbitrament  of  war. 
If  slavery  was  wrong  and  an  unmitigated  evil — "the  scene 
of  all  villiany, "  as  abolitionists  have  pronounced  it — then 
other  people  than  those  of  the  South  are  responsible,  and 
impartial  history  will  award  to  them  whatever  degree  of 
condemnation  that  attaches.  The  late  slave  States  have 
little  or  no  agency  in  the  first  introduction  of  African  slave- 
ry into  this  country;  this  was  achieved,  as  already  shown, 
by  the  commercial  States  of  the  North  and  by  Great  Britain. 
Our  fathers  came  in  contact  with  slavery  and  in  possession 
of  it  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  sentiment  or  prejudice 
against  it.  It  was  taken  under  their  patronage,  controlled 
in  the  interest  of  both  master  and  slave,  and  transmitted  as 
a  legacy  to  their  children ;  successive  generations  grew  up 
with  it  and  inherited  it,  until  it  was  incorporated  with  every 
fibre  of  our  social  and  political  existence. 

Whatever  renown  anti-slavery  men  may  lay  claim  to  for 
the  part  they  acted  in  the  poHtical  drama  that  ended  in  the 
overthrow  of  slavery,  they  cannot  escape  the  impartial  ver- 
dict of  mankind,  rendered  against  them,  for  not  only  im- 
peding and  preventing  voluntary  and  peaceable  emancipa- 
tion by  the  South,  but  for  the  greater  crime  of  subverting 
the  Constitution  of  their  country,  provoking  sectional  war, 
and  imperiHng  the  safety  of  our  political  institutions  in  the 
future.  Those  questions  and  their  proper  answer,  which 
fix  the  measure  of  culpability  upon  the  one  side  or  the 
other,  rightfully  belong  to  the  domain  of  history.  And 
when  a  philosophical  view  of  the  laws  of  passion  and  of 
thought,  as  they  have  moved  upon  our  Southern  people, 
and  incited  them  to  action,  shall  be  taken  by  the  historian, 
who  may  be  prepared  to  judge  them  impartially,  there  may 
be  a  measure  of  blame  cast  upon  a  class  of  Southern  states- 
men for  the  part  they  contributed  in  shaping  the  late  mo- 
mentous events  of  American  history.  There  is,  perhaps, 
no  people,  in  a  review  of  their  past  history,  who  will  fail  to 
see,  in  som.e  important  crisis  in  their  natural  life,  that  a  failure 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  9 

to  comprehend  the  true  nature  of  that  crisis,  caused  a  de- 
parture from  the  path  of  true  progress,  and  left  them  to 
grapple  with  difficulties  that  time  alone,  with  the  exercise 
of  patience  and  fortitude,  could  overcome.  Tlie  convic- 
tion is  widening  and  deepening  in  the  Southern  mind,  that 
slavery,  apart  from  the  moral  and  political  aspects  of  the 
question,  was  a  failure  in  an  industrial  and  economic  view — 
under  that  system  of  labor  the  production  of  the  great  sta- 
ple of  the  South  was  stimulated  and  developed  to  an  extent 
that  left  us  an  annual  return,  but  a  modicum  of  profit  to  the 
Southern  planter.  It  was  made  the  instrument  of  felling 
the  virgin  forest,  and  laying  waste,  and  impoverishing  one 
of  the  finest  countries,  in  climate,  soil  and  diversity  of  pro- 
ducts that  the  sun  has  ever  shone  upon.  It  is  true  that  it 
aided  in  the  settlement  and  rapid  development  of  the  coun- 
try, and  created  a  temporary  prosperity,  but  the  intrinsic 
value  of  slave  property,  which  represented  about  two-thirds 
of  all  values  at  the  South,  depended  upon  a  wide  era  of  new 
country,  constantly  opening  up  before  it  for  its  necessary 
expansion.  Had  it  been  confined  to  the  limits  it  occupied 
at  the  time  of  the  manumission  of  the  slave,  its  converti- 
ble value  would  have  been  destroyed  in  a  very  few  years, 
the  profits  on  its  labor  constantly  diminishing,  and  the 
Southern  planter  would  have  sustained  that  relation  to  it, 
of  which  John  C.  Calhoun  said  :  "If  the  slave  did  not  run 
away  from  the  master,  the  master  would  from  the  slave." 
It  was  instrumental  in  the  training  up  of  our  young  people 
to  habits  of  inaction,  and  encouraged  a  false  pride  that 
caused  them  to  look  upon  labor  as  something  debasing  and 
ignoble.  It  checked  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and  intelligent 
co-operation,  that  builds  up  diversified  industries,  aug- 
ments the  capital,  and  gives  permanency  to  the  wealth  of 
nations.  It  combined  in  the  directions  of  its  operations  as 
a  natural  sequence,  both  labor  and  capital,  which,  accord- 
ing to  well  settled  laws  of  poHtical  economy^,  should  be 
distinct,  and  each  left  to  guard  its  own  interest  in  fair  and 
honorable  competition.     It  was  the  means  of  accumulat- 


10  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

ing  three  thousand  milHons  of  property — the  toil  and  thrift 
ofacertury — of  an  unusual  and  unsubstantial  value.that  was 
swept  away  by  the  stroke  of  a  pen — leaving  the  South  only 
the  soil  it  had  robbed  of  its  virgin  freshness — a  sad  and  con- 
stant reminder  of  the  impolicy  of  the  past.  And  one  other 
sequence  of  slavery,  more  momentous  to  us  in  its  present 
and  future  bearing  upon  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  Souths 
than  all  others  combined,  is  the  planting  upon  the  same 
soil,  under  the  forms  of  a  free  government,  with  equal 
rights  and  privileges,  two  separate  and  distinct  races,  more 
widely  differing  in  all  the  human  characteristics  than  any 
races  of  men,  would  seem  to  place  before  the  Southern 
people  a  problem  for  solution  as  difficult  as  any  people  in 
the  past  have  h  d  to  solve. 

Two  distinct  races  in  such  juxtaposition,  with  no  possi- 
bility of  ever  blending — barred  by  color  and  insuperable 
caste,  with  pride  and  prejudice  that  revolts  at  an  union  so 
unnatural,  and  repugnant — must,  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  place  one  of  the  two  in  a  subordinate  and  inferior 
position,  or  result  in  a  struggle  for  race  supremacy,  the 
resul'  of  which  cannot  be  doubtful.  To  institute  a  com- 
parison between  the  races  at  the  South,  where  analogies 
are  so  obviously  wanting,  and  the  parallels  do  not  run  far 
enough  for  the  purpose  of  illustration,  would  lead  to 
travesty  upon  a  subject  that  we  desire  to  treat  in  a  more 
serious  view. 

Brief  sketches  of  th^  more  marked  characteristics  of  the 
two  races,  as  presented  by  history  and  present  condition 
and  attainments,  would  better  serve  the  purpose  in  view. 
The  Anglo-Saxon,  from  which  the  Southern  whites  have 
mainly  sprung  and  belong,  presents,  in  those  qualities  that 
give  men  and  nations  power,  prestige  and  influence,  the 
highest  type  of  the  human  race.  Its  civilization  his  been 
the  constant  and  uninterrupted  growth  of  fifteen  centuries, 
in  which  every  problem  that  presents  itself  to  the  human 
mind,  has  been  studied  and  analyzed  with  a  patience,  en- 
ergy and  accuracy  that  human  reason,  stimulated  by  the 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  11 

best  aspirations  of  man,  could  bring  to  the  task.  It  re- 
cords its  triumphs  in  every  department  of  science,  in  every 
branch  of  art,  and  in  every  field  of  enterprise,  that  secures 
wealth  or  conrributes  to  the  elevation,  comfort  and  well- 
being  of  mankind.  Honor,  valor.ambition,  and  all  the  high- 
er qualities  that  find  their  chosen  lodgement  in  the  breast  of 
men,  "formed  to  rule,"  are  possessed  in  a  pre-eminent 
degree  by  this  race,  and  has  given  it  the  mastery  upon 
every  field  of  conflict,  where  an  enemy  was  encountered, 
or  a  cause  to  be  won.  This  race,  secure  "upon  its  sea- 
girt isle,"  has  not  suffered  a  foreign  enemy  to  touch  her 
soil  in  the  last  five  centuries,  while  she  has  dealt  her  blows 
in  the  great  conflicts  of  Europe,  and  always  left  her  foe  a 
suppliant  at  her  feet.  Can  it  be  asserted,  that  the  same 
race  upon  Southern  soil,  with  its  traditional  pride,  with 
its  chivalrous  bearing,  its  spirit  of  persistence  and  powers 
of  endurance,  would  yield  the  mastery  of  its  own  soil  to 
the  slave  of  yesterday  ? 

There  is  no  proposition  more  clearly  established  by  his- 
tory, than  that  the  negro  is  incapable  of  any  development 
or  advancement  in  the  arts  of  civilization,  when  left  to  him- 
self, away  from  the  contact  and  patronage  of  the  white 
man. 

In  Africa,  where  his  lot  was  cast  after  the  great  tribal 
divisions  of  the  human  race,  we  find  him  to-day  enveloped 
in  the  same  stolid  ignorance  and  heathen  bondage,  that 
he  was  forty  centuries  ao-o,  with  no  powers  of  mind  above 
the  animal  instincts  of  his  nature — subsisting  without  labor 
upon  the  spontaneous  products  of  the  soil — worshipping 
idols,  at  which  human  sacrifices  are  offered  up,  with  rites 
and  orgies  that  wouid  shock  the  sensibilities  of  any  other 
savage,  save  that  of  his  own  race.  In  their  wars,  which 
are  of  almost  constant  occurance,  they  show  no  tact  or 
.strategy,  either  in  aggressive  or  defensive  warfare — are  in- 
capable of  making  combinations,  or  seeking  those  advan- 
tages resulting  from  treaty  and  alliances  with  other  tribes 
or  peoples,  which   all   nations  and   races  have   done,  who 


12  THE    NEGRO    PBOBLEM. 

have  arisen  from  primal  or  tribal  weakness  to  occupy  a 
name  and  place  in  history.  They  have  not  utilized  the 
labor  of  the  horse  or  other  animal — have  made  no  progress 
in  the  mechanical  arts,  not  even  upon  their  rude  imple- 
ments of  warfare.  And  travellers  tell  us  that  no  monuments 
or  other  relics,  indicating  at  any  period  that  art,  in  any  of 
its  branches,  had  been  brought  into  requisition  by  the 
natives  of  Africa.  This  is  not  true  in  any  other  lineage  or 
type  of  the  human  race. 

In  the  most  interior  sections  of  the  great  continent  of 
Asia,  and  the  farthest  removed  from  the  contact  of  civiliz- 
ing influences,  are  to  be  found  crumbled  arches  and  pros- 
trate columns,  indicating  archictectural  skill  and  some 
degree  of  advance  in  civilization  at  remote  periods  in  his- 
tory. The  aborigines  of  North  and  South  America  have 
left  unmistakable  evidence,  which  remains  to  the  present 
time,  that  the  spirit  of  invention  had  been  exercised  by 
them,  and  left  behind  memorials  of  a  rude  but  advancing 
civilization. 

It  might  be  said  that  commerce  and  military  expeditions, 
that  have  often  planted  the  germ  of  civilization  in  other 
barbarous  countries,  had  no  incentive  or  occasion  to  con- 
fer this  boon  upon  Africa.  The  great  nations  of  antiquity, 
Egypt,  Carthage,  Persia  and  Greece,  were  situated  upon, 
or  but  httle  removed  from,  the  continent  of  Africa,  and 
Herodotus  speaks  of  trading  expeditions  by  the  Greeks 
along  the  coast  of  Africa ;  while  Egypt,  under  her  warlike 
kings,  penetrated  the  contiguous  parts  of  Africa,  and  left 
the  impress  of  its  power  upon  a  race  too  barren  in  mental 
resources  to  catch  the  inspiration  of  progress.  The  negro 
race  has  in  no  instance  given  evidence  of  its  ability  to 
cope  with  a  civilized  race,  in  a  contest  for  supremacy, 
when  anything  like  equal  numbers  were  upon  the  odier 
side.  When  once  enslaved,  he  has  submitted  to  the  rule 
of  the  master,  until  the  restraints  of  slavery  were  hfted  by 
the  power  that  imposed  it,  or  some  other  that  championed 
his  cause,  and  gave  him  his  freedom.     There  is  not  a  single 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  13 

instance  in  the  history  of  this  race,  where  they  ever  con- 
ceived a  plan,  or  attempted  its  execution,  for  their  libera- 
tion from  bondage,  that  had  an  element  of  success  about 
it.  They  were  in  a  state  of  slavery  for  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  in  Hayti  and  Jamaica,  where  the  white  race,  in 
the  last  fifty  years  of  this  period,  were  in  proportion  to 
the  blacks  of  one  to  ten,  with  a  small  number  of  troops 
maintained  by  their  respective  governments  (France  and 
England),  yet  there  was  no  serious  revolt  against  the  rule 
of  the  master,  as  long  as  the  institution  of  slavery  existed. 
During  the  great  social  and  political  upheaval  that 
brought  in  the  French  revolution,  the  Jacobin  faction,  in 
their  mad  carnival  of  "  equality  and  fraternity,"  proclaimed 
the  freedom  of  the  blacks  in  Hayti,  and  allowed  the  people 
of  that  province  to  establish  an  independent  government, 
giving  the  negro  race  political  rights  under  it.  The  negroes 
here,  seeing  their  vast  preponderance  in  numbers,  and  the 
power  it  gave  them,  asserted  and  maintained  their  su- 
premacy, and  wreaked  a  brutal  and  terrible  vengeance,  in 
the  butchery  of  many  thousand  whites — the  remainder 
fleeing  from  the  island  and  seeking  safety  in  foreign  lands. 
This  war  of  races  was  followed  by  an  uprising  of  the  blacks 
against  the  mulattoes,  which  resulted  in  an  extermination 
of  the  latter,  leaving  the  negro  master  of  himself,  an  "her- 
itage of  woe,"  and  a  blot  and  curse  upon  the  most  valua- 
ble island  in  the  broad  Atlantic.  England  repeated  the 
experiment  of  France,  by  liberating  her  slaves  in  the 
province  of  Jamaica,  and  conferred  upon  the  mixed  popu- 
lation the  right  of  local  self-government,  under  a  protecto- 
rate of  the  British  Crown.  As  soon  as  an  equality  of 
rights  and  privileges  were  proclaimed  and  enforced,  the 
prejudice  and  antagonism  of  race  was  engendered,  result- 
ing in  outbreaks  and  chroni^*' disorder,  until  the  whites, 
goaded  to  desparation,  rose  in  arms,  and  with  the  aid  of 
the  British  soldiery,  visited  a  swift  and  terrible  punish- 
ment upon  the  blacks,  demonstrating  to  the  world  the 
impracticability  of  the  two  races  existing  under  the  same 


14  THE    NEGRO    PRGBLEM. 

government,  with  e'qual  rights  and  privileges,  with  the 
negro  disputing  the  claims  of  the  white  man  to  supremacy. 

A  more  rapid  decline  and  general  prostration  of  all  in- 
dustrial resources,  has  not  been  seen  anywhere  in  raodern 
times,  than  that  which  followed  emancipation  in  the  Brit- 
ish and  French  provinces.  In  Jamai'ca  a  plan  -.f  gradual 
emancipation  was  adopted  by  the  English  government,  but 
after  two  or  three  years  the  negro  became  so  demoralized 
that  the  planters  became  disgusted  with  the  institution, 
and  totally  abandoned  it.  The  blacks  then  commenced  a 
career  of  vagrancy,  wandering  about  in  idleness,  and  living 
upon  the  spontaneous  products  of  the  island — the  upculti- 
vated  fields  growing  up  into  a  jungle — the  dismantled  and 
silent  machinery,  the  crumbled  wall  and  deserted  mansion 
— all  making  up  a  picture  melancholy  and  appalling,  and 
naturally  awakening  the  inquiry  to  those  who  have  been 
compelled  to  repeat  the  experiment  of  Exeter  Hall,  will 
the  same  fate  rest  upon  the  South  ? 

Mr.  Bigelow,  formerly  editor  of  the  New  York  EvLming 
Post,  and  during  the  late  war  United  States  Minister  to 
Spain,  visited  the  West  Indies  in  the  winter  of  1855,  and  re- 
mained several  months,  watching  with  deep  concern,  as  an 
anti  slavery  man,  the  developments  taking  place  among  the 
colored  population.  In  speaking  of  the  ruinous  decline  of 
the  material  interest  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica,  and  the  enor- 
mous quantity  of  land  thrown  out  of  cultivation,  he  says : 
"  Thi's  decline  has  been  going  on  from  year  to  year,  daily 
becoming  more  alarming,  until  at  length  tjie  island  has 
reached  what  would  seem  to  be  the  last  profound  of  dis- 
tress and  misery,  when  t?housands  of  people  do  not  know, 
when  they  rise  in  the  morning,  whence  or  in  what  manner 
they  are  to  procure  bread  for  the  day." 

San  DomingQ,  before  emancipation  had  taken  place,  was 
dotted  over  with  Siplendid  estates,  that  yielded  their  pro- 
prietors a  princely  income,  the  value  of  her  products  to 
rtie  extent  of  her  territory,  and  numbjCr  of  operatives  em- 
ployed, exceeded  that  of  any  other  country  of  the  globe. 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  15 

Emancipation  there  was  productive  of  results  fully  as  dis- 
astrous to  its  prosperity  as  it  had  been  to  that  of  Jamaica. 
There  was  an  almost  total  abandonment  of  the  export  of 
sugar,  its  great  staple  product,  in  less  than  twenty  years 
after  freedom  was  declared.  In  1790,  three  years  before 
the  liberation  of  the  slave,  this  island  exported  163,318,810 
pounds  of  sugar,  but  in  1801,  its  exports  were  reduced  to 
18,554,112  pounds,  and  in  1810  to  2,020  pounds,  since 
which  time  its  export  of  sugar  has  entirely  ceased.  In 
1790  this  island  exported  more  cotton  than  the  United 
States.  Twenty  years  later,  it  ceased  to  export  cotton  as 
an  article  of  commerce,  which  was  in  great  demand  at 
highly  remunerative  prices,  while  c'offee,  growing  sponta- 
neously, requiring  no  cultivation  or  other  attention  than 
that  of  gathering  it,  yet  had  fallen  off  as  an  export  in  1810 
more  than  100  per  cent,  upon  the  amount  exported  at  the 
time  of  emancipation. 

From  this  statistical  view,  we  find  that  the  negro  race 
in  the  West  Indies,  in  a  state  of  freedom,  did  not  meet  the 
first  conditions  of  eivilized  life,  by  a  failure  to  provide  for 
the  prime  necessaries  to  sustain  physical  existence,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  refusal  to  make  those  higher  divisions  of 
labor  necessary  to  any  advance  in  civilization.  The  negro 
there  *^  d  t>een  in  a  state  of  slavery  more  than  onehundieJ 
and  fifty  years,  and  by  it  elevated  in  the  scale  of  civilized 
being  far  above  the  level  of  the  savage,  and  brought  into 
constant  intercourse  with  the  white  race,  as  master  and 
overseer,  had  been  trained  to  labor,  and  taught  the  methods 
of  producing  food  supplies,  as  well  as  the  valuable  staples 
that  enter  into  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  return  a 
money  value;  yet  we  see  them,  with  many  advantages  and 
facilities  for  a  higher  development,  refusing  to  employ  such 
agencies  for  its  attainment,  but  halting  and  retrograding 
to  their  primitive  conditions  of  savage  life. 

The  proposition,  we  think,  that  the  negro,  left  to  him- 
self tp  work  out  the  problems  of  civilized  life,  '^yithout  the 
superior  intelligence  of  the  white  man  to  aid  and  direct 


16  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

him,  is  so  clearly  settled  by  the  logic  of  actual  results  in 
the  English  provinces  and  in  Hayti,  as  never  to  present 
itself  again  as  a  question  for  serious  controversy. 

MENTAL    QUALITIES    AND     CHARACTERISTICS     OF    THE     NEGRO 
RACE. 

The  fact  that  there  are  four  and  a  half  milHons  of  this 
race  among  us,  constituting  nearly  one-half  of  the  popula- 
tion of  the  Southern  States,  and  in  some  localities  a  large 
numerical  majority,  renders  it  of  the  highest  importance 
that  his  nature  and  peculiarities  of  constitution  should  be 
studied  and  understood  ;  not  only  by  those  Vi^ho  make  and 
administer  laws  for  the  common  weal  of  both  races,  but  by 
all  classes  who  are  brought  in  daily  contact  with  him  in  a 
business  or  semi-social  relation. 

The  negro,  we  find,  in  his  mental  organization,  exhibits 
but  little  or  no  originality.  His  faculty  for  invention  and 
contrivance,  where  a  principle  is  to  be  studied  and  applied, 
is  rarely  drawn  upon  or  improved,  and  whatever  proficien- 
cy he  may  attain  in  any  branch  of  art  or  science,  is  due 
rather  to  the  process  of  memory  and  his  skill  at  imitation, 
than  any  proper  understanding  of  the  rules  of  art  or  princi- 
ples of  science.  His  intellect,  if  susceptible  of  classifica- 
tion, is  on  the  mechanical  order.  He  reasons,  when  that 
faculty  is  called  into  requisition,  by  analogy — in  comparing 
the  subject  under  consideration  with  something  else  that 
has  come  under  his  observation,  and  forms  his  conclusions 
without  a  resort  to  the  more  intricate  process  of  induction. 
Memory,  and  the  faculty  of  imitation,  forming  the  order  of 
his  mind  with  insufficient  power  of  abstract  thought  to  ex- 
amine principles,  compare  different  methods,  and  originate 
new  plans,  he  seems  designed  by  Providence  for  a  subor- 
dinate position  under  the  direction  of  a  superior  intelli- 
gence. 

We  have  never  heard  of  a  colored  person,  even  at  the 
North,  in  contact  with  the  ingenious  Yankee,  applying  for 
a  patent  right  to  any  implement,  or  other  useful  article  of 
his  own  invention.     This  defect  in  the  mental  constitution 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  17 

of  tlie  negro  is  not  confined  to  mechanical  operations 
merely,  but  operates  against  him  in  every  field  of  enter- 
prise that  he  might  enter  upon.  In  San  Domingo,  where 
they  have  pursued  an  independent  career  for  eighty- five 
years,  we  find  them  introducing  no  element  of  progress, 
either  in  social  or  political  life.  There  was  a  considerable 
capital  left  them  hi  the  cultivated  and  highly  improved 
landed  estates  with  the  wealth  of  the  cities  and  towns  in- 
cluded, yet  they  have  never  projected  a  railroad  or  tel- 
egraph, and  many  of  the  public  highways  and  costly 
bridges,  so  necessary  to  meet  the  wants  of  the  country 
under  the  rule  of  the  white  man,  are  now  abandoned  as 
of  no  utility  to  the  present  owners  of  the  soil. 

The  negro,  like  all  inferior  races,  is  deficient  in  will 
power — a  defect  that  is  palpably  seen  in  him  under  any 
degree  of  mental  training,  or  in  any  condition  of  life  he 
may  be  placed. 

This  faculty,  controlled  by  correct  principle  and  sound 
judgment,  is  indispensable  in  the  execution  of  every  lauda- 
ble purpose,  and  without  it  nothing  valuable,  either  in  in- 
dividual or  collective  enterprise,  can  be  accomplished.  The 
negro,  in  his  ignorant  and  unreasoning  state,  with  perfect 
freedom  from  all  restraint  upon  his  volition,  we  find  to  be 
the  mere  creature  of  chance  ;  his  calling  and  habitation  fixed 
and  controlled  by  casual  circumstance,  without  resolute 
will,  and  persistent  effort  to  change  for  the  better,  by  sur- 
mounting the  difficulties  that  may  environ  him.  We  have 
noticed  many  of  them,  since  their  late  emancipation,  set 
out  with  fair  prospects  of  gaining  a  competency,  and  with 
all  the  advice  and  encouragement  that  was  necessary  to 
keep  them  in  the  line  of  success,  would,  despite  it,  yield  to 
some  vanity  or  weakness,  and  find  themselves,  in  a  short 
time,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  with  no  profitable  lesson  gained 
by  the  experience.  This  is  not  so  much  attributable  to  their 
ignorance  and  inexperience  in  the  practical  duties  of  life, 
as  it  is  to  the  fickle  and  unstable  element  that  is  inherent  in 

2 


18  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

their  nature.  Those  that  are  educated,  and  have  the  best 
opportunities  for  amehorating  their  condition  in  life,  rarely 
exhibit  the  study  and  inflexible  purpose  to  achieve  the  best 
results  their  capabilities  would  authorize.  The  negroes  at 
the  North  are  generally  educated  under  the  free  school  sys- 
tem that  obtains  there,  and  quite  a  number  are  graduated 
in  Northern  colleges,  which  is  supposed  to  prepare  the  re 
cipients  of  such  mental  training  for  any  vocation  in  life. 
We  have  yet  to  hear  of  the  first  negro,  even  at  the  North, 
where  they  certainly  have  the  best  opportunities  for  devel- 
opments, who  is  really  entitled  to  distinction,  or  has  a 
record  that  will  compare  favorably  with  that  of  a  third  rate 
white  man,  in  the  same  department  of  life.  Fred  Douglass 
and  Langston  both  possess  clear  abilities,  but  have  received 
their  distinction  rather  by  comparison  with  their  own  race, 
and  in  this  respect  are,  par  eminence,  entitled  to  some  no- 
toriety, but  neither  have  evinced  moral  or  intellectual  quali- 
ties to  give  them  force  and  elevation  of  character  sufficient  to 
assign  them  a  place  in  history.  While  their  race  in  the 
United  States  have  been  passing  through  a  transitive  period 
for  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  certainly  needed  the  advice 
and  guidance  of  a  master  mind  in  sympathy  with  their  pe- 
cuhar  state,  yet  the  two  mentioned,  or  any  other  that  have 
assumed  the  role  of  leader,  have  not  exhibited  any  capacity 
for  leadership,  but  have  proven  blind  and  false  guides, 
whose  councils,  if  followed,  will  likely  sink  the  negro  to 
lower  depths  of  degradation  and  misery  than  he  has  yet 
reached.  Both  of  the  worthies,  mentioned  above,  made 
their  advent  before  the  public,  some  thirty  years  ago, 
in  hostile  opposition  to  the  Colonization  Society — a  project 
which  was,  doubtless,  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  real  philan- 
thropy, and  was  thought  by  some  of  our  wisest  statesmen 
(North  and  South)  to  be  a  beneficent  and  judicious  move- 
ment in  the  interest  of  the  freed  blacks. 

These  would-be  leaders  in  their  political  course,  we  see, 
are  at  times  the  subject  of  party  intrigue,  and  are  ready  to 
do  the  behest  of  any  party  or  faction  that  may  play  upon 


THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM.  19 

their  credulity;  at  other  times  they  are  wrought  upon  by 
race  feeling,  and  advise  their  people  to  cut  loose  from  all 
political  association  with  the  whites,  and  rely  upon  their 
advice  and  assistance  in  no  emergency.  At  the  National 
Colored  Convention,  held  at  Washington  City,  on  the  4th 
of  July,  1874,  Fie  J  Douglass  was  the  chief  spokesman,  and 
was  put  forward  ■>  tlie  special  purpose  of  declaring  the 
sentiment  of  his  people  in  regard  to  their  relation  to  the 
country.  In  this  speech,  in  alluding  to  the  attitude  of  the 
colored  race  at  the  South,  and  the  liability  to  collisions  on 
the  race  question,  he  advised  his  colored  friends  at  the 
South  "to  go  armed  at  all  times,  and  execute  a  bloody 
vengeance  upon  the  Southern  whites  as  the  best  method  of 
settling  any  grievance  that  might  arise  in  the  future." 

In  the  quality  of  courage  ofthat  order  which  springs  from  a 
sense  of  honor  and  duty,  and  impels  men  to  action  in  the 
maintenance  of  principles,  or  defense  of  life  and  liberty,  he  is 
manifestly  wanting.  There  i^  in  his  nature  a  spirit  of  venture, 
that  subjects  him  to  risk  of  person,  without  prudent  calcu- 
lation of  the  danger  incurred,  or  the  value  of  the  object  to 
be  gained  by  the  risk.  In  personal  combat  it  little  matters 
what  may  be  the  casus  belli,  he  must  be  sa'isfied  of  his 
superi6r  muscle,  and  that  the  chance^  in  the  fight  are  in 
h.s  favor,  before  encounteriiiii;  an  antagonist.  He  may,  at 
times,  exhibit  a  brute  courage,  su;  .  as  the  mad  bull  is 
incited  to  by  the  red  flag,  or  the  spear  of  the  matadore, 
that  rushes  him  into  acts  o*  vide'ice  an  1  desperation, 
without  any  regari  to  the  consequeiices  lo  himself  or  the 
object  upon  which  his  ra-'e  may  be  expenled.  The  code, 
we  believe,  is  never  resorted  to  to  settle  any  "points  of 
honor"  that  may  arise  to  disturb  the  amicable  relations 
between  gentlemen  of  color.  Tnis  treatment  of  the  code 
of  honor  may  not  be  any  reflection  that  will  likely  bring 
it  into  disrepute  in  the  future,  but  shows  that  the  darkey, 
though  "sudden  and  quick  in  quarrel,"  has  found  out 
other  ways  of  seeking  satisfaction,  more  in  accordance  with 
his  ideas  or;'C"<«    .  •  ••  fety. 


20  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM, 

The  negro's  exhibition  of  prowess  upon  the  field  of 
battle,  in  defense  of  country  and  hberty,  is  no  less  a  sub- 
ject for  travesty,  than  that  of  his  personal  bravery.  In  the 
late  war,  levied  by  England  against  the  Ashantec  nation, 
for  a  redress  of  grievances,  occasioned  by  King  Coffee,  a 
single  regiment  ot  British  soldiers  overran  and  conquered 
the  dominions  of  the  African  King,  defended  by  an  army 
of  tv/enty  thousand  men,  armed  with  modern  implernents, 
in  defense  of  their  own  country. 

The  negro  in  the  Federal  army  during  the  Confederate 
war,  with  full  knowledge  that  he  was  enlisted  in  the  cause 
of  his  own  liberation,  and  that  the  future  status  of  his  race 
and  kindred  at  the  South  depended  upon  the  result  of  the 
struggle,  could  not  be  induced  to  fight  without  a  Federal 
bayonet  tn  the  rear,  ready  to  impale  him,  shall  he  attempt 
a  retrograde  movement.  In  the  recent  outbreaks  at  the 
South,  in  which  the  two  races  have  been  brought  into  a 
conflict  with  arms,  the  negro,  though  often  outnumbering 
ten  to  one,  have  always  shown  the  most  abject  cowardice, 
where  their  insolent  attacks  were  met  by  the  unyielding 
courage  of  the  white  man. 

To  organize  and  carry  on  anything  like  an  insurrection, 
requiring  for  its  success  secrecy,  tact  and  organization,  is 
out  of  the  question,  and  should  create  no  apprehension  in 
the  minds  of  our  people  at  any  time. 

Such  movements,  though  doubtless  often  conceived  by 
the  negro  during  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- five  years  of 
slavery  in  our  country,  have  never  approximated,  either  in 
the  plan  of  operations  or  actual  attempt,  anything  like  a 
.serious  revolt  against  the  rule  of  the  master.  During  the 
last  two  years  of  our  late  war,  two-thirds  of  the  white 
male  adults  were  in  the  army,  leaving  their  homes  and 
families  at  the  mercy  of  their  slaves,  so  far  as  any  hostile 
feeling  or  power  to  harm  them  was  concerned.  The  true 
situation  of  things  at  home  was  well  known  to  the  negroes 
generally,  as  the  servants  who  attended  their  masters  in 
the  army  were  frequently  s^nt  home  on  errands^  and  could 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  21 

give  information  as  to  the  distance  of  our  soldiers  from 
any  given  point,  and  the  unprorected  condition  of  the 
people  at  home,  against  any  attack  or  uprising  of  tuc 
negro  population. 

The  conduct  of  the  slaves  during  the  war,  in  this  particu- 
lar, commended  itself  to  the  favor,  if  not  the  gratitud ■■  of 
our  people,  and  its  remembrance  shouljj  temper  any  feeling 
of  exasperation  against  the  negro  for  the  turbulent  and 
lawless  spirit  that  he  has  at  times  manifested,  under  the 
teachings  of  "the  party  of  moral  ideas,"  through  its  fit 
representative — the  carpetbagger.  If  left  to  himself,  free 
from  all  extraneous  influence,  the  negro  would  no*-  be 
tempted  by  any  social  or  political  aspirations  to  rise  above 
his  proper  level,  but  would  fall  into,  and  be  contented  with, 
his  natural  and  subordinate  relation  to  the  white  race.  A 
servile  disposition,  whether  in  his  primitive  barbarism,  or 
under  the  influences  of  civilized  life,  seems  to  be  an  inhe- 
rent and  firmly  fixed  trait  in  the  negro  character.  He 
cannot,  in  a  true  sense,  enjoy  anything  like  rational  liber- 
ty. When  not  in  state  of  slavery,  under  the  task-master, 
who  subdues  his  will  and  controls  his  physical  man,  he  is 
led  by  the  stronger  impulses  of  his  nature  in  pursuit  of 
something  that  will  exercise  dominion  over  him.  It  mat- 
ters but  little  with  him  what  may  be  the  form  or  character 
of  the  servitude  he  renders,  so  long  as  he  has  something 
that  will  accept  the  homage  that  instinct,  the  real  propell- 
ing force  in  his  nature,  pron">pts  him  to  bestow. 

A  prominent  trait  in  the  character  of  the  average  negro, 
is  his  vanity,  which  he  is  fond  of  displaying  on  suitable 
occasions,  with  an  assumed  dignity  and  an  air  of  compb.is- 
ance  and  self-importance,  that  seem  to  rend:?r  him  supremely 
satisfied  with  himself.  His  fondness  for  fine  clothing,  trinkets 
and  gaudy  ornaments,  is  often  gratified  by  a  privation  not 
only  of  comforrs,  but  the  real  nece-siries  of  life.  His 
obsequious  disposition  and  pliant  nature,  makes  him  sus- 
ceptible of  outward  polish,  and  with  an  example  of  true 
politeness  before  him,  he  soon  acquires   mannors  that  are 


22  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

easy,  graceful  and  artistic,  which  render  him  highly  ser- 
viceable on  occasions  where  the  lackey  is  needed.  Correct 
taste  and  a  sense  of  propriety  rarely  enters  into  his  "  make 
up,"  and  he  feels  more  pride  ir  "  cutting  a  dash,"  than 
leaving  a  favorable  impression  by  simplicity  of  manners 
and  an  exhibition  of  good  sense. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  better  opportunity  for  udging  cor- 
rectly of  the  traits  that  make  up  the  human  character  than 
that  which  the  domestic  relation  affords.  The  regard  that 
is  paid  to  the  marriage  relation — the  esteem  and  affection 
that  husband  and  wife  exercise  towards  each  other — the 
love  of  offspring,  and  the  degree  of  solicitude  felt  and  man- 
ifested in  the  maintenance  and  welfare  in  Hfe,  forms  one  of 
the  main  foundations  of  human  society,  and  is  never  want- 
ing among  those  people  that  make  up  well-ordered  and 
prosperous  communities.  It  cannot  be  claimed  for  the  ne- 
gro that  he  cherishes  any  high  regard  for  the  institution  of 
marriage,  though  they  nearly  all  marry  at  an  early  age,  and 
some  are  "given  to  marry"  several  times  before  reaching 
their  majority.  While  it  may  be  fair  to  presume  that  they 
exercise  as  much  reason  in  this  particular  as  they  do  in 
other  matters,  it  is  evidently  true  that  the  motives  and  in- 
centives that  actuate  the  other  race,  in  many  respects,  be- 
fore and  after  marriage,  are  generally  wanting  in  the  case  of 
the  negro.  Their  stolid  nature  is  rarely,  if  ever,  kindled 
with  that  feeling  of  romance,  which  rises  above  the  animal 
instincts,  and  forms  a  pure  and  perfect  ideal  of  the  oppo- 
site sex  in  bringing  them  together  in  the  act  of  courtship, 
or  more  serious  re'ation  of  marriage.  The  gratification  of 
a  sense  of  novelty  in  the  new  relation,  seems,  for  the  most 
part,  the  motives  that  prompt  them  to  marry.  Marriage 
among  them  has  had  but  little  effect  in  promoting  virtue 
and  carrying  out  the  design  of  tlu  divine  institution. 
Many  of  them  live  in  open  adultery  during  the  whole  mar- 
ried state,  and  they  oftentimes  cut  loose  "from  bed  and 
board  "  from  slight  provocation,  or  upon  mere  caprice — 
leaving-  their  offspring  to  the  chances  and  odds  of  a  preca- 
rious existence. 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  23 

In  the  management  of  their  children,  there  is  a  general 
neglect  of  the  wholesome  discipline  that  is  necessary  to 
bring  them  up  to  habits  of  obedience,  and  train  them  to 
proper  line  of  conduct  in  life.  The  correction  of  tne  child 
is  generally  dependent  upon  the  temper  of  the  parent. 
When  moderate  counsels  v/ould  suffice  for  neglect  of  duty, 
or  waywardness  of  the  child,  if  noticed  at  all,  it  is  most 
frequently  with  threats  and  abuse,  or  if  the  rod  is  used,  it 
is  generally  under  a  rage  of  passion,  that  leaves  the  hapless 
subject  hardened,  and  desperate  undei  the  severity  of  its 
infliction. 

It  we  go  beyond  the  domestic  circle  into  the  more  com- 
plex duties  that  devolve  upon  the  citizen,  we  find  the  ne- 
gro, even  in  his  best  estate,  educated,  and  with  opoortuni- 
ties  for  observation,  and  with  extended  experience,  unfit 
for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  civil  life.  While  it 
could  not  be  expected  of  the  ordinary  negro  to  cherish 
any  degree  of  patriotism,  on  account  of  his  inability  to  com- 
prehend the  theory  and  operation  of  government — the  oro- 
tection  ii;  affords  to  life,  liberty  and  property,  it  is  never- 
theless true  that  he  is  incapable  of  cultivating  and  receiv- 
ing that  measure  of  attachment  and  love  of  country  that 
the  average  white  man  does.  His  local  attachment  is  not 
fixed  by  any  love  of  the  soil — the  streams,  the  hills  and 
plains  that  form  the  germ  of  patriotism  in  other  races,  even 
the  lower  types,  as  the  Indian  and  Esquimaux,  but  depend 
rather  upon  accidental  circumstances — those  that  favor  his 
love  of  ease  and  sensual  enjoyment.  Hence  he  often  changes 
his  place  of  abode  when  doing  well,  without  any  rational 
motive,  or  remains  in  a  situation  that  is  unfavorable  to  his 
interest,  on  account  of  some  trivial  advantage,  or  fancied 
good,  that  forms,  for  the  time,  his  local  attachments. 

To  make,  in  any  sense,  citizens  out  of  such  people,  such 
as  can  be  relied  on,  to  promote  the  national  interest  of  the 
State,  to  foster  and  defend  its  institutions,  and  to  exhibit, 
at  all  times,  the  true  spirit  of  patriotism,  is  utterly  imprac- 


24  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

ticable,  and  as  chimerical  as  any  exploded  humbug  of  the 
past. 

CRIMINAL  ASPECTS    OF    THE    NEGRO. 

The  opinion  that  the  negro  race,  on  account  of  his  de- 
praved nature  and  vicious  habits,  would  become  a  burden 
upon  the  country  after  his  emancipation,  and  impose  upon 
the  Legislature  and  courts,  difficult  and  embarrassing 
duties,  had  its  origin  in  no  mere  misgivings,  or  spirit 
of  opposition  to  the  late  amendments  to  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, but  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  negro  char- 
acter, and  the  results  that  would  follow.  The  North  is 
peculiarly  sensitive  upon  any  question  affecting  the  "man 
and  brother"  at  the  South,  and  there  has  been  too  much 
deference  paid  to  Northern  sentiment  about  the  negro  in 
Southern  State  legislation  and  in  dealing  generally  with  the 
case  the  negro  presents.  Northern  men,  for  the  most 
part,  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the  habits,  peculiariiies 
of  constit\'tion,  and  mental  and  moral  stamina  of  the  negro, 
and  cannot  tai<e  any  reasonable  or  common-sense  view  of 
any  measure  affecting  the  two  races  at  the  South.  Twenty- 
five  years  of  stormy  agitation  there,  characterized  by  an 
utter  abandonment  of  all  reason  and  candid  argument,  and 
a  resort  to  calumny,  detraction  and  falsehood,  as  the 
most  effective  weapons  to  assail  the  institution  of  slavery, 
caused  them  to  regard  the  negro  at  the  South  only  in  a 
philanthropic  sense,  and  would  have  us  ignore  the  u.se  of 
wholesome  restraints  and  severe  discipline,  that  the  negro 
must  undergo  before  he  is  prepared  for  a  sphere  in  civil- 
ized life. 

The  negro  problem,  in  all  its  phases,  must  be  promptly 
and  fearlessly  met,  as  the  exigencies  arise,  upon  principles 
of  right  and  justice  towards  the  negro,  and  in  a  way  that 
will  protect  the  peace  and  interests  of  society,  without  any 
regard  for  outside  opinion.  The  suppression  of  crime, 
the  preser\$ation  of  social  order,  and  a  promotion  of  the 
material  interests  of  the  State,  are  subjects  falling  within 
the  province  of  the  State  Governments  exclusively,  they 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  20 

are  responsible  for  a  proper  regulation  of  the^e  subjects, 
and  for  a  failure  to  do  so,  are  amenable-  to  the  condemna- 
tion of  those  directly  interested,  and  to  the  censure  and 
reproach  of  the  outside  world. 

It  is  a  fact  too  obvious  for  controversy,  that  crime 
amongst  the  Southern  negro  is  increasing  every  year  at  ;m 
alarming  rate,  and  if  not  checked  by  some  measures  of 
reform,  will,  apart  from  the  direct  evil  resulting,  so  increase 
the  cost  of  admii;istering  justice  by  the  courts,  as  to  make 
it  an  intolerable  burden  upon  the  tax-payers  of  the  State. 
If  we  should  direct  an  enquiry  into  the  cause  of  this  in- 
crease of  crime,  we  would  doubtless  find  them  inherent  in 
the  nature  of  the  negro,  independent  of  any  outward  influ- 
ences or  peculiar  circumstances  that  may  surround  him. 
In  a  state  of  slavery,  his  physical  wants  were  better  pro- 
vided for  by  the  master  than  he  is  capable  of  by  self-man- 
agement. His  time  and  energies  were  constantly  em- 
ployed in  useful  labor,  and  lor  all  classes  of  minor 
offenses,  was  amenable  to  the  domestic  forum,  that  admin- 
istered certain  and  adequate  punishment  for  the  offence 
committed.  Hence  we  find  him,  in  that  state,  rarely 
guilty  of  an  infraction  of  public  law,  quietly  fulfilling  his 
mission  in  the  field  of  industry,  and  visiting  upon  himself 
nothing  of  that  odium  and  degradation  that  now  attaches  to 
the  free  negro,  as  the  author  of  mischief  and  disorder. 

li  we  revert  to  the  history  of  the  negro  in  a  state  of 
freedom  at  the  North,  where  he  has  been  the  object  upon 
which  efforts  at  reform  have  been  liberally  expended,  es- 
pecially to  improve  his  morals  and  make  him  law-abiding, 
we  shall  find  but  little  amelioration  in  his  moral  status 
there,  and  still  furnishing  an  inviting  field  for  missionary 
labors,  in  that  land  of  "steady  habits  and  moral  ideas." 
We  have  no  statistics  of  a  recent  date,  but  refer  to  the 
reports  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  made  in 
1850,  from  thiity  to  forty  years  after  emancipation  had 
taken  place  in  the  several  States  referred  to.  The  report, 
after  speaking  of  the  degraded  condition  of  the  free  blacks, 


26  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

the  frequency  and  increase  of  crime  among  them,  proceeds 
to  sustain  its  assertions  by  facts  gathered  from  the  peni- 
tent'aries,  to  show  how  great  a  proportion  of  the  convicts 
are  colored  :  "  Tn  Massachusetts,  where  the  colored  people 
constituted  one  seventy-fourth  part  of  the  population,  they 
supplied  one-sixth  part  of  the  convicts  in  her  penitentiary  ; 
that  in  New  York,  where  the  free  blacks  constituted  one 
thirty-fifth  of  the  population,  they  furnished  more  than  one- 
fourth  part  of  the  convicts  ;  that  in  Pennsylvania  and  Con- 
necticut, where  the  free  blacks  constituted  one  thirty  fourth 
part  of  the  population,  they  supplied  more  than  one-third 
of  the  convicts."  "It  is  unnecessary  "  continues  the  re- 
port, "to  pursue  these  illustrations.  It  is  sufficiently  ap- 
parent, that  one  great  cause  of  the  increase  of  crime  is 
neglecting  to  raise  the  character  of  the  colored  popula- 
tion." If  forty  years  of  freedom,  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions  possible,  at  the  North,  has  evinced  no  moral 
improvement,  and  has  not  served  "  to  raise  the  character 
of  the  colored  population."  if  it  is  worth  anything  as  a 
sociological  fact,  it  clearly  shows  the  imbecility,  the  de- 
pravity and  inferiority  that  is  stamped  upon  every  linea- 
ment of  the  African  race. 

We  need  not  go  beyond  our  own  vicinage  to  be  con- 
vinced that  the  negro  is  a  constitutional  lawbreaker,  prone 
to  evil  deeds,  and  will  reap  a  harvest  of  crime  if  the  fear 
of  tangible,  corporal  punishment  does  not  deter  him.  The 
average  number  of  convicts  in  the  Georgia  penitentiary  for 
twenty  years  before  it  was  opened  to  the  negro,  was  about 
one  hundred.  We  fmd  that  there  has  been  an  annual  in- 
crease of  convicts  at  the  rate  of  about  50  percent.,  swelling 
the  number  to  about  eight  hundred  at  the  present  time — a 
fearful  record  of  crime — a  fact  pregnant  with  thought  and 
apprehension  of  the  future.  Ten  years  of  freedom,  with 
personal  liberty  guaranteed,  with  the  privileges  as  well  as 
the  responsibilities  that  attach — with  lessons  that  observa- 
tion and  experience  teaches  in  the  daily  examples  of  how 
the  erring  are  dealt  with,  and  how  the  good  and  exempla- 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  27 

ry  are  rewarded,  should  certainly,  it  seems,  point  him  to 
the  path  of  duty,  and  urge  him  to  pursue  it. 

As  the  negro  is  free,  and  in  the  possession  of  equal  guar- 
antees by  the  Federal  and  State  Constitutions,  no  criminal 
code,  even  if  desirable,  could  be  framed  that  would  dis- 
criminate in  the  infliction  of  penalties  between  the  two 
races.  And  it  may  be  seriously  asked,  if  our  present  penal 
code  is  not  severe  enough,  without  adding  to  its  rigors,  or 
demanding  a  more  rigid  enforcement  of  its  mandates  than 
is  already  done  in  our  State  courts  ?  And  where  there  can 
be  no  discrimination  in  the  framing  and  enforcing  penal  laws 
— one  law  for  the  white  man  and  another  for  the  negro — 
can  the  white  man,  at  this  advanced  stage  of  civilization, 
place  himself  under  a  code  of  criminal  law  that  might  be 
applicable  and  suited  to  an  inferior  race,  without  a  feeling 
of  debasement,  and  invite  adverse  criticism  upon  the  civil 
institutions  under  which  he  lives?  In  view  of  the  vast 
amount  of  smaller  crimes,  coming  under  the  head  of  mis- 
demeanors in  law,  the  vexation  and  loss  of  time,  and  ex- 
pense of  a  prosecution  in  the  courts,  and  the  frequency 
with  which  they  are  dropped,  and  the  guilty  parties  go 
unpunished,  there  is,  in  consequence,  a  growing  disposi- 
tion among  the  planting  interest,  who  suffer  most  by  i-he 
class  of  offenses  named,  to  legalize  the  whipping  post  and 
bring  it  into  practice.  While  this  method  of  punishment 
for  misdemeanors  might  be  wholesome  and  remedial  in 
effect  in  the  case  of  the  negro,  and  relieve  the  country  of 
the  expense  of  jail  fees  and  cost  of  prosecutions  in  the 
courts,  its  liability  to  abuse,  and  danger  of  engendering  a 
bad  feeling  betwen  the  races,  would  be  reasoiis  suffici  nt 
to  prevent  its  coming  into  practice.  It  would  not  be  long, 
if  such  a  law  was  in  force,  before  a  white  man  would  be 
brought  to  the  "post,"  and  this  would  likely  stir  up  "  bad 
blood,"  resulting  in  acts  of  revenge  in  some  way,  that 
would  at  once  demonstrate  the  impracticability  of  such 
modes  of  legal  punishment. 

No  punishment  for  the  commission  of  crime,  that  merely 


28  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

confines  the  negro  in  prison,  and  deprives  him  of  his  hbcr- 
ty  will  be  remedial  in  effsct  upon  the  offender  himself,  or 
u  on  the  race  at  large  as  a  preventative  against  crime.  The 
peniteniiary  system  proper,  confining  the  convict  to  work- 
houses, where  the  service  performed  is  entirely  of  the  me- 
chanical order,  would  be  rather  inviting  to  the  ordinary  ne- 
gro, and  have  in  it  no  element  of  either  a  punative  or  re- 
formatory character. 

The  laws  of  Georgia,  providing  for  farming  out  her  con- 
victs, and  establishing  chain-gangs,  where  the  convict  is 
held  to  the  performance  of  the  severest  physical  labor,  is 
the  best  possible  disposition  that  can  be  made  of  them,  and 
offers  a  ready  solution  to  the  once  vexed  question  of  work- 
ing convict  labor.  The  vast  mineral  resources  of  North 
Georgia,  in  her  inexhaustible  mines  of  iron  and  coal,  yet 
undeveloped,  and  requiring,  in  their  infancy,  cheap  and  ac- 
tive labor,  find  in  the  convict  force,  rapidly  increasing  every 
year,  just  the  class  needed,  and  this  field  of  industry  itself 
will,  doubtless,  relieve  the  State  authorities  of  all  anxit-ty  in 
the  future  as  to  the  disposal  of  State  convicts.  The  discre- 
tion allowed  by  law  to  the  Executive  in  the  assignment  of 
convict  labor  to  appropriate  fields,  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  offense  and  character  of  the  criminal,  is  a  wise  pro- 
vision in  meting  out  justice  in  individual  cases,  and,  by 
properly  guarding  it,  can  be  made  to  keep  down  race  feel 
ing  amon^  the  convicts,  and  in  the  public  mind  that  doubt- 
less would  arise  from  an  indiscriminate  allotment. 

There  has  been  some  strictures  by  the  Northern  press 
upon  the  Georgia  plan  of  working  convicts  in  the  chain- 
gang — originating  in  that  pragmatic  spirit  inherited  from 
"  the  Pilgrim  fathers  "  that  still  prompts  a  considerable  ele- 
ment at  the  North  to  pry  into  and  interfere  with  the  con- 
cerns of  other  people,  especially  when  the  prejudices  of 
their  own  people  can  be  wrought  upon,  and  political  capi- 
tal made  by  it.  Some  of  our  Georgia  newspapers,  who 
watch  with  *'  bated  breath  "  every  ripple  upon  the  currents 
of  Northern  sentiment,  have  caught  up  the  refrain  about 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  23 

the  relics  of  barbarism  in  Georgia,  and  have  advocated  the 
abandonment  of  the  chain  gang  as  one  of  them.  The  vast 
rate  of  increase  of  crime  in  our  State,  the  necessity  of  on- 
fining  the  penitentiary  system  to  a  limited  number,  and  its 
evident  failure,  as  a  corrective  and  preventative  of  crime 
among  the  negro  population,  makes  the  continuance  of  the 
chain-gang  an  imperative  necessity  in  the  future. 

While  our  State  courts  have  been  vigilant  and  active  in 
enforcing  penal  law,  and  have,  doubtless,  inflicted  adequate 
punishment  upon  all  classes  of  offenders  arraigned  before 
them,  yet  there  is  an  evident  defect  in  our  judiciary  system 
as  at  present  constituted,  in  not  providing  a  more  summary 
and  expeditious  process  for  the  trial  of  the  class  of  penal 
offenders  coming  under  the  grade  of  felony.  It  is  this  class 
of  penal  cases  that  lengthen  the  dockets,  and  prolong 
the  sessions  of  our  Superior  Courts,  consuming  the  time  of 
our  people  in  jury  duty,  and  swelling  the  expense  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  public  justice,  until  it  has  become  a  grievous 
burden  to  taxpayers.  This  class  of  cases  are  made  up  for 
the  most  part  of  the  crimes  of  petit  larceny,  breach  of  the 
peace,  malicious  mischief,  and  trespass  upon  lands,  and 
come  under  the  simplest  forms  of  law,  involving  no  com- 
plex or  abstruse  principles,  and  their  proper  investigation 
and  decision  resting  upon  a  few  simple  facts,  requires  no  le- 
gal learning  or  judicial  skill  in  the  court  exercising  jurisdic- 
tion. 

In  the  present  condition  of  the  country,  with  a  large  ig- 
norant and  degraded  population,  under  but  Httle  moral  re- 
straints, and  law-abiding  only  to  the  extent  that  they  dread 
the  penalty  the  law  inflicts,  it  becomes  highly  necessary  for 
the  protection  of  society  that  better  police  regulations 
should  be  adopted.  Criminal  jurisdiction  should  be  con- 
ferred upon  our  Justice  Courts  for  all  penal  offences  be- 
low the  grade  of  felony,  which  would  make  them  in  fact  po- 
lice courts,  so  that  every  militia  district  in  a  community 
could  carry  out  its  own  police  regulations,  and  not  carry 
those  minor  offenses  into  the  Superior  Courts,  where  the 


30  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

prosecution  ol  such  cases  are  necessarily  expensive — in  the 
cost  of  court,  jail  fees,  and  in  the  consumption  of  valuable 
time  of  business  men  on  jury  duty. 

It  has  been  urged  as  an  objection  to  giving  ciiminal  ju- 
risdiction to  Justice  Courts,  that  it  would  not  do  to  confer 
upon  men  unlearned  and  unskilled  in  law  judicial  power  to 
decide  upon  the  delicate  and  difficult  question  of  personal 
rights,  involved  in  the  trial  of  even  minor  criminal  cases. 
This  objection  has  been  partially  and  perhaps  sufficiently 
answered  in  the  statement  that  such  cases  come  under  a 
simple  statute — the  simplest  form  of  law — defining  in  very 
plain  language  the  act  declared  to  be  penal  by  the  Legisla- 
ture, and  prescribing  the  penalty  for  its  commission.  The 
judicial  officer  has  simply  to  examine  the  evidence  submit- 
ted, and  determine  whether  it  is  of  sufficient  weight  to 
establish  the  guilt  of  the  party  arraigned. 

If  criminal  jurisdiction  were  conferred  upon  Justice  Courts, 
it  would  raise  somewhat  the  dignity  and  importance  of  the 
office,  and  men  of  higher  capacity  would  be  selected  to  fill  it. 
In  every  community  there  are  men  of  good  natural  ability, 
intelligence  and  sound  discriminating  judgment,  giving 
them  sufficient  capacity  to  investigate  a  case  and  render  a 
correct  decision,  where  no  very  difficult  law  points  are 
involved.  Thomas  Jefferson  once  remarked  that  the  Jus- 
tice Courts  of  Virginia  were  the  best  courts  in  the  world, 
because  they  decided  every  case  upon  the  naked  facts,  and 
upon  its  own  merits,  without  complicating  a  correct  view 
of  the  case  with  a  multipUcity  of  legal  principles  and 
conflicting  precedents,  that  often  perplex  and  confuse  the 
best  judicial  acumen. 

The  idle  and  vagrant  condition  of  a  large  number  of  col- 
ored people  in  every  section  of  the  country,  is  a  proUfic 
source  of  evil,  and  should  not  be  tolerated.  It  is  a  well 
recognized  fact,  that  a  man  at  simple  or  unskilled  labor,  can- 
not support  himself  (much  less  a  family),  on  an  average  of 
one  or  two  days'  work  out  of  the  week.  There  should  be  a 
rigid  and  well-defined  vagrant  act,    that  will  reach  those 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  31 

cases  that  make  work  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule 
of  daily  life.  Superior  Court  Judges  should  be  required  to 
urge  the  law  of  vagrancy  with  point  and  emphasis,  in  their 
accustomed  charges  to  grand  juries.  It  has  always  been 
difficult  to  enforce  vagrant  laws,  and  they  have  remained 
almost  a  dead  letter  upon  our  statute  books,  but  public 
sentiment  should  be  toned  up  to  the  point  where  it  shall 
demand  their  enforcement,  as  necessary  to  advance  the 
moral  as  well  as  material  interests  of  the  State. 

Adultery  and  bigamy  are  pronounced  crimes  by  our 
penal  statutes,  yet  they  are  practiced  to  an  extent  by  the 
colored  race  that  precludes  the  idea  of  virtuous  and  cor- 
rect life  among  them.  Our  courts  rarely  take  cognizance 
of  such  violations  of  law,  owing  doubtless  to  the  general 
prevalence  of  the  crime,  the  time  it  would  necessarily  con- 
sume in  the  trial  of  such  cases,  the  heavy  burden  of  cost, 
without  perhaps  any  compensating  good  in  the  end.  As 
the  negro  forms  a  part  of  our  body  politic,  if  not  an  ele- 
ment of  society,  it  seems  that  he  should  be  brought  to  an 
observance  of  the  rules  of  law  that  are  deemed  necessary 
to  government  of  civilized  communities.  It  might  be  said, 
by  way  of  extenuation  of  the  laches  on  the  part  of  the 
courts  in  not  punishing  this  class  of  offenses,  that  they 
only  affect  the  negro  race,  and  that  no  direct  injury  can 
result  to  society  fro;n  its  toleration.  If  it  was  the  interest 
of  society  that  he  should  remain  in  a  state  of  semi-barbar- 
ism, and  was  it  not  desirable  to  raise  the  degraded  charac- 
ter of  the  negro  race  to  a  higher  standard  of  morality  and 
general  worth,  then  we  might  with  reason  say,  let  him 
follow  the  brutal  instincts  of  his  nature.  As  slaves,  they 
were  not  considered  as  an  integral  part  of  Southern  society, 
but  in  state  of  freedom,  with  equal  rights  and  [privileges 
accorded  them,  they,  by  force  of  circumstances,  become 
an  element  of  society.  The  commission  of  crime  on  their 
part  is  published  in  the  daily  press — enters  into  statistical 
reports — becomes  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  State,  and 
reflects  in  the  aggregate  upon  its  civilization. 


32  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

Man's  better  nature  may  be  appealed  to,  and  incited  to 
virtuous  and  praiseworthy  endeavors,  yet  we  find  in  him 
an  element  of  weakness  and  depravity  that  must  be  ope- 
rated upon  by  the  fear  of  punishment,  before  he  makes 
any  real  advance  towards  the  goal  of  a  better  life.  This 
proposition' is  very  probably  true  of  the  negro  as  well  as 
of  the  white  man,  although  the  mental  and  moral  qualities 
of  the  two  exist  in  a  marked  disproportion.  Education 
and  religious  instruction  may  be  auxiliaries  in  improving 
the  state  of  the  negro,  if  there  is  an  element  of  good  in 
him,  but  in  his  present  condition  there  is  no  argument 
more  forcible  and  effective  in  checking  his  tendency  to 
evil,  than  that  which  appeals  to  the  physical  man  in  the 
form  of  legal  punis^ent  for  the  wrong  he  may  do. 

EDUCATION    OF   THE    NEGRO. 

Upon  the  subject  of  educating  the  negro,  in  affording 
him  equal  advantages  and  facilities  w'th  th  it  of  the  white 
race,  there  is  great  diversity  of  opinion  among  intelligent 
thinking  men  at  the  South.  Their  views  are  very  probably 
formed  in  the  main  by  the  supposed  effect  it  would  have 
upon  the  negro  character,  the  extent  it  would  influence 
him  to  change  the  occupations  requiring  physical  labor  to 
others  of  less  utility  to  society  at  large,  and  the  means  or 
agency  by  which  his  education  may  be  accompished. 
The  fact  that  so  large  an  element  of  Southern  population 
are  in  a  sta*-e  of  abject  ignorance,  incapable  of  exercising 
intelligent  thought  upon  any  subject  that  may  present  it- 
self, even  in  the  daily  practical  concerns  of  life,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  more  complex  duties  of  citizenship,  which 
have  been  thrust  upon  them  without  any  preparation,  are 
sutificient  to  direct  earnest  attention  to  the  deplorable  con- 
dition of  the  negro,  and  to  awaken  apprehension  of  its  ef- 
fect upon  the  interest  and  well  being  of  the  white  race. 

These  are  perplexing  questions  connected  with  the  edu- 
cation of  the  negro  that  cannot  be  satisfactorily  solved 
without  patient  and  gradual  experiment.  If  there  was  any 
thing  like  general   education    diffused    among    them,    it 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM,  33 

might  bring  a  class  of  influences  to  bear  upon  them,  that 
would  tend  to  mar  the  peace  and  become  hurtful  to  the 
interests  of  both  races.  It  cannot  yet  be  seen  what  effect 
it  would  have  in  stimulating  their  pride  and  aspirations  to 
a  recognition  of  perfect  equality  with  the  white  race.  No 
claim  of  this  kind  will  ever  be  accorded  by  the  whites,  no 
matter  what  might  be  the  culture  and  attainments  ot  the 
negro.  We  already  see  the  cheap,  trashy,  catch-pen ny 
publications  of  the  Northern  newspaper  press,  such  as 
teach  a  grievous  and  leveling  doctrine  in  general,  are  find- 
ing their  way  to  the  reading  class  of  negroes,  and  will  very 
probably  furnish  their  literary  pabulum  in  the  future.  If 
the  negro  should  not  manifest  a  stronger  identity  with  the 
section  in  which  he  lives,  and  continues  to  follow  the  ad- 
vice and  teachings  of  those  who  are  inimical  to  every  in- 
terest of  the  South,  then  the  Southern  people  would  be 
absolved  from  obligations  of  any  kind  to  aid  in  his  en- 
lightenment. 

What  has  been  accomplished  by  the  negro  in  the  North- 
ern States  since  his  emancipation  there,  running  back  in 
some  of  the  States  that  first  adopted  it  (Massachusetts  and 
Pennsylvania)  nearly  a  century,  affords  us,  perhaps,  the 
best  illustration  of  the  progress  that  he  is  ca^:able  of  mak- 
ing, under  conditions  more  favorable  than  are  to  be  found 
elsewhere.  There,  am'ple  provision  is  made  un^^er  the  sys- 
tem of  free  schools  for  the  education  of  the  negro  as  well 
as  the  white  race,  and  both  occupy  the  same  level,  not 
only  in  educational  advantages,  but  every  other  means  of 
culture  that  may  be  necessary  to  their  moral  and  intellr-ct- 
ual  elevation.  If  we  are  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  value 
of  education  upon  the  negro  race,  by  what  thorough  and 
systematic  efforts  at  the  North  have  accomplished  for  him 
there,  we  fear  no  very  encouraging  view  can  be  taken  in 
the  cause  of  education  for  the  Southern  negro.  The  slow 
progress  made  by  the  free  black?  at  the  North,  or  rather 
the  absence  of  all  improvement  in  industry,  general  intel- 
ligence and  morality,  under  the  most  favorable  conditions 

3 


34  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

possible,  warrants  the  opinion  that  his  aspirations  and  ca- 
pabilities are  of  such  order  as  to  keep  him  on  a  very  low- 
plane  of  civiliz:ition. 

It  is  reasonably  certain  that  the  negro  population  at  the 
South,  taken  as  a  whole,  are  likely  to  remain  in  a  state  of 
poverty  and  dependence  for  an  indefinite  period  in  the  fu- 
ture. His  want  of  thrift,  foresight,  and  an  intelligent  ap- 
preciation of  the  value  of  his  labor,  will  cause  him  to  ignore 
the  methods  by  which  property  is  accumulated,  and  re- 
mand him  to  a  state  of  perpetual  poverty.  There  will,  no 
doubt,  be  some  exceptions,  and  it  cannot  be  seen  of  indi- 
viduals, but  it  is  foreseen  of  the  great  mass  of  this  race ;  and 
it  is  for  the  mass,  not  for  the  exception,  that  the  institu- 
tions of  society  are  to  provide.  With  this  view,  warranted 
by  ethnological  law,  and  historical  fact,  in  the  case  of  the  ne- 
gro, is  it  not  better  that  the  character  and  intellect  of  the 
individual  should  be  suited  to  the  staticn  which  he  is  to  oc- 
cupy? So  far  as  the  mere  laborer  has  the  pride,  the  knowl- 
edge or  the  aspirations  of  an  intelligent  man,  he  is  unfitted 
for  his  situation,  and  must  more  keenly  feel  its  infelicity. 
If  there  are  sordid  services  and  laborious  offices  to  be  per- 
formed, is  it  not  better  that  there  should  be  sordid,  servile 
and  laborious  beings  to  perform  them  ?  Would  n;  t  the  in- 
terest of  society  be  served,  and  would  not  some  sort  of  fit- 
ness seem  to  require  that  they  should  be  selected  for  the 
the  inferior  and  servile  offices  ?  And  if  this  race  be  gene- 
rally marked  by  such  inferiority,  is  it  not  better  that  they 
should  fill  them  ? 

Upon  the  other  hand,  we  are  confronted  with  the  fact  that 
ignorance  and  crime  "  go  hand  in  hand,"  and  with  the  mind 
and  moral  faculties  uncultivated,  the  individual  has  no  proper 
conceptions  of  right,  duty,  and  the  obligations  he  owes  to 
society,  and,  following  the  bent  of  an  evil  nature  and  per- 
verse will,  is  apt  to  inflict  wrong  and  violence  upon  his  fel- 
low being.  Hence,  where  the  individual  is  not  obedient  to 
law  from  moral  convictions,  the  State  must  exercise  guard- 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  3..) 

ianship  over  him,  in  the  strict  enforcement  of  law,  for  the 
protection  of  society. 

The  advocates  of  a  free  school  system  claim  for  it,  as  a 
direct  advantage,  while  it  compensates  for  the  money  ex- 
pended by  the  State  in  free  tuition,  the  saving  of  the  Cost 
of  criminal  prosecutions,  the  additional  protection  extended 
to  life  and  property  in  the  diminution  of  crime,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  moral  benefits  resulting  to  society  in  a  multipHed 
form.  1  he  Southern  States,  in  their  present  impoverished 
condition,  with  enormous  public  debt  hanging  over  them, 
are  not  in  a  condition  to  carry  on  a  system  of  free  schools 
like  the  rich  and  prosperous  States  of  the  North,  however 
politic  and  desirable  it  may  otherwise  be.  If  our  popula- 
tion were  of  one  race,  entirely  homogeneous,  the  common 
school  system  would  assert  its  claims  with  more  plausibihty 
and  force  than  it  can  possibly  do  under  the  existing  status 
of  things.  The  impracticability  of  teaching  white  and  col- 
ored children  in  the  same  school,  and  the  necessity  of  pro- 
viding separate  schools  for  each,  necessarily  enhances  the 
cost  of  free  schools  in  the  Southern  States,  and,  as  a  mere 
question  of  tconomy,  places  the  argument  against  them. 
Though  not  germain  to  our  subject,  we  cannot  forego  an 
expression  of  opinion,  that  the  plan  of  public  schools,  as  at 
present  conducted  in  Georgia,  hmited  to  three  months  in 
the  year,  with  an  inadequate  fund  to  maintain  them  even 
that  length  of  time,  requiring  patrons  to  supplement  the 
pay  of  teachers,  is  very  unsatisfactory  in  its  workings,  and, 
in  its  present  shape,  clearly  contravenes  the  educational  in- 
terests of  the  State. 

Upon  the  supposition  that  the  negro  is  to  remain 
among  us,  and  that  he  is  permanently  invested  with  the 
right  of  suffrage  by  which  he  wields  a  power  in  shaping 
the  legislation  of  the  State,  and  in  the  control  of  civil 
affairs,  it  would  seem,  in  that  event,  the  policy  of  the 
white  race  to  aid,  to  some  extent,  the  education  of  the 
negro,  so  far  as  it  may  be  compatible  with  the  general  in- 
terests of  the  State. 


36  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

As  we  purpose  to  discuss  briefly  the  question  of  coloni- 
zation, and  that  of  universal  suffrage  more  at  length,  in 
the  subsequent  pages  of  this  paper,  we  shall  not  more  than 
incidently  allude  to  it  in  this  connection.  We  cannot  an- 
ticipate, with  any  degree  of  certainty,  the  revolutions  of 
public  sentiment,  or  the  political  action  that  may  control 
any  given  subject  in  the  future,  but  as  to  the  negro  re- 
maining among  us,  undisturbed  by  a  governmental  scheme 
of  colonization,  or  that  of  voluntary  emigration,  we  believe 
to  be  among  the  very  probable  events  of  the  future. 

In  view  of  ail  the  surroundings,  it  is  the  duty  as  well  as 
interest  of  the  Southern  people  to  make  a  fair  and 
thorough  test  of  the  negro's  adaptability  to  the  demands 
of  our  industrial  system,  and  in  this  experiment  will  be 
tested  his  capability  for  any  development  and  his  fitness 
for  a  sphere  of  civilization.  There  should  certainly  be  no 
obstacles  interposed  to  prevent  or  hinder  him  m  a  couise 
of  self  instruction  and  improvement.  This  would  not  only 
be  gross  injustice,  but  opposed  by  every  liberal  and  intelli- 
gent sentiment  that  actuates  a  generous  and  humane  peo- 
ple. 

The  present  adult  negro  population  cannot  be  brought 
under  any  system  of  mental  improvement,  from  the  fact 
that  they  are  dependent  upon  their  daily  labor  for  means 
of  subsistance,  nor  could  they  be  spared  from  the  various 
fields  of  labor  in  which  they  are  employed.  It  is  doubt- 
less the  duty  of  the  white  people  to  encourage,  to  some 
extent,  the  education  of  the  negro  children  that  are  grow- 
ing up  in  the  country.  If  farmers  or  neighborhoods  would 
donate  sites  for  colored  school  houses,  and  manifest  an  in- 
terest in  getting  up  schools  for  the  freedmen,  to  be  kept 
up  even  for  two  or  three  months  in  the  year,  it  would  enable 
their  children  to  obtain  the  rudiments  of  an  education,  and 
with  any  faculty  for  self  improvement,  would  enable  them 
to  make  such  further  attainments  as  their  ambition  or  ca- 
pacity might  lead  to  ;  such  action  on  the  part  of  land 
owners  would  inure  to  their  own  benefit  in  securing  labor 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  37 

for  the  cultivation  of  their  farms,  and  render  it  more  effi- 
cient and  permanent  by  attaching  the  freedman  to  locah'- 
ties  that  afford  such  facilities. 

THE    NEGRO    AS    A    LABORER. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  nature,  habits  of  life  and 
order  of  intelligence  that  is  presented  in  the  history  of  the 
negro  race,  in  his  native  land,  or  in  those  countries  where 
he  has  existed  in  the  tvvo  conditions  of  slavery  and  free* 
dom — the  most  practical  and  important  question  that  can 
present  itself  to  the  Southern  people  is  :  Can  he  be  made  ser- 
viceable in  his  present  relation,  and  an  efficient  co-worlcer 
in  promoting  the  material  interests  of  the  South  ?  While 
the  negro  race,  in  all  the  British  provinces  where  slavery 
formerly  existed  have  declined  in  an  industrial  and  moral 
point  of  view,  and  may  be  drifting  slowly  back  to  savage 
life,  it  would  not  be  z  fair  and  just  conclusion  to  say  that 
under  more  favorable  circumstances  he  might  not  render 
valuable  service  in  promoting  the  industrial  interests  of  the 
country  in  which  he  exists  as  a  freedman.  The  negroes  of 
the  South  present  rather  a  favorable  contrast, at  the  present 
time,  to  the  West  India  negroes  at  the  time  of  their  liber- 
ation. The  negroes  in  those  islands  were  in  a  state  of 
semi  barbarism  when  they  were  freed.  The  landed  pro- 
prietors there  were  generally  men  of  vast  wealth,  owned 
large  estates  and  cou.ited  their  slaves  by  the  hundred, 
which  were  kept  under  military  rule,  never  allowed  the 
privileges  of  Southern  slaves  in  visiting  among  themselves 
or  commg  in  constant  contact  with  white  men.  No  mis- 
sionary efforts  for  their  religious  instruction  were  directed 
in  their  behalf,  and  being  placed  under  such  unfavorable 
opportunities  for  any  improvement,  were  not  elevated  so 
much  above  their  primitive  state  as  the  Southern  negro. 

In  all  those  countries,  with  the  exception  of  the  United 
States,  where  the  negro  has  passed  from  a  state  of  slavery 
to  that  of  freedom,  we  find  them  to  be  tropical  countries — 
furnishing  to  the  inhabitants  food  without  labor,  iii  the 
abundant  resources  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,      la   hose 


38  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

countries  he  has  been  left  to  himself  for  the  most  part, 
without  the  example  and  influence  of  the  white  man,  and 
without  wise  and  wholesome  laws  to  restrain  his  vicious 
propensities,  to  compel  him  to  work,  and  secure  to  him 
the  fruits  of  his  labor.  The  climate  of  all  tropical  coun- 
tries, too,  has  an  enervating  and  depressing  effect  upon  the 
physical  man — relaxing  his  energies  of  mind  and  body. 
Hence  we  find  all  races  of  men  there,  whatever  may  be  the 
stimulus  to  industry  and  exertion,  rebpsing  into  a  state 
of  indolence  and  inaction,  that  confines  labor  and  the  field 
of  industrial  enterprise  to  the  bare  acquisition  of  the  prime 
necessaries  of  life. 

In  a'l  the  South  American  States,  with  the  exception  of 
Brazil,  where  slavery  still  exists  with  a  monarchical  gov- 
ernment, there  has  been  but  little  progress  in  the  elements 
of  civilization  since  the  overthrow  of  Spanish  rule,  fifty 
years  ago.  These  petty  republics  are  a  burlesque  upon 
free  government,  given  over  to  a  state  of  chronic  revolu- 
tion, and  present  no  very  favorable  contrast  in  growth  and 
material  development  to  their  neighboring  negro  commu- 
nities of  the  West  India  Islands. 

But  it  may  be  asked:  Why  has  the  negro  not  done  more 
for  himself,  esta'^lished  a  better  character  as  a  laborer,  and 
arisen  in  the  scale  of  private  and  public  worth  at  the 
North,  where  climate,educational  advantages, public  law  rind 
political  institutions  gave  him  a  fair  field  for  development? 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  a  great  discount  upon  the 
negro  as  a  laborer  there,  that  he  has  long  since  been  driv- 
en out  as  a  competitor  in  the  field  of  active  labor — is  rarely 
found  in  the  agricultural,  manufacturing  or  mining  interest 
of  that  busy  section,  but  in  the  more  m  nial  occupations, 
as  porter,  stevedore, hotel  waiter  and  boot- black,  where  the 
labor  performed  is  menial  and  low,  and  the  compensation 
does  not  invite  active  competition.  While  this  is  true,and 
forms  a  strong  argument  against  the  worth  of  the  negro  as 
a  laborer,  it  should  be  viewed  in  its  proper  light,  and  the 
necessary  allowance  made  to  the  credit  of  the  negro,   There^ 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  39 

more  than  at  the  South,  the  race  feeling  has  operated  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  negro.  Men  in  need  of  labor 
would  give  the  white  laborer  preference,  owing  to  the  pre- 
dilections of  race,  though  the  negro  might  perform  the 
task  as  well.  The  industrial  system  of  the  North  is  carried 
on  by  day  labor,  or  by  contract  for  a  short  term  of  service. 
The  white  man,  in  his  physical  organization,  is  endowed 
with  more  activity  and  nervous  energy,  and  performs  his 
allotted  task  quicker  than  the  negro.  Hence,  as  a  day- 
laborer,  is  preferable,  and  will  aUvr.ys  supercede  the  negro 
in  that  kind  of  service. 

The  negro,  too,  has  keenly  felt  the  prejudice  of  race  at 
the  North  by  the  refusal  of  the  white  laborer  to  work  side 
by  side  with  him  in  the  field  or  workshop,  and  has  often 
t'een  driven  out  by  threats  and  violence,  until,  by  force 
of  circumstances,  he  has  been  compelled  to  withdraw  from 
the  field  of  competitive  labor  with  the  white  man. 

In  the  Southern  States  the  four  and  a  half  millions  of  ne- 
groes are  scattered  over  an  area  of  five  hundred  thousand 
square  miles,  living  upon  the  lands  of  an  intelligent  and  en- 
terprising white  race,  who  will  bring  to  bear  every  encour-' 
agement  to  voluntary  labor,  and  if  need  be,  legislative  ac- 
tion will  be  invoked,  to  render  him  an  active  and  profitable 
worker  in  that  department  of  labor  where  he  is  wanted,  and 
for  which  he  is  fitted  by  nature.  The  experiment  with  free 
labor  at  the  South  since  the  emancipation  of  the  slave.while 
it  has  not  been  very  satisfactory,  yet,  under  the  manage- 
ment of  those  who  have  any  capacity  for  controlling  free 
labor,  has  proven  far  more  efficient  and  valuable  than  was  to 
be  hoped  for  when  the  experiment  was  first  essayed.  Much 
might  be  said  by  way  of  apology  for  remissness  or  failure 
of  the  negro  to  meet  the  demands  of  Southern  industry. 

He  was,  by  a  stern  and  arbitrary  edict  that  consulted 
neither  his  interest  or  that  of  his  master,  forced  from  the 
patriarchial  institution  of  slavery  that  provided  for  his  phys- 
ical needs,  and  relieved  him  from  all  care,  into  a  state  of 
freedom,  without  any  appreciation  of  the  value  of  labor,  or 


40  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

any  preparation  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  that  rest 
upon  free  people.  Northern  ereiissaries,  under  the  guise  of 
friendship  for  the  negro,  and  in  the  interest  of  a  corrupt  po- 
litical faction,  sought  him  out,  and  filled  his  weak  and  cred- 
ulous mind  with  agrarian  stories  that  made  the  corn  and 
cotton  field  less  attractive,  in  view  of  the  more  tempting  and 
ea>i'y  won  prizes  just  ahead. 

If  we  should  examine  the  question  of  free  negro  labor  in 
the  light  of  actual  results — ascertain  to  what  extent  he  has 
contributed,  annually,  for  the  last  ten  years  to  the  sum  of 
production,  and  his  direct  agency  in  upholding  the  indus- 
try of  the  South,  we  would,  doubtless,  see  a  more  liberal 
and  just  estimate  placed  upon  his  worth  as  a  laborer,  and 
less  talk  of  ridding  the  South  of  the  negro  and  filling  his 
place  with  European  and  Northern  labor.  It  is,  doubtless, 
the  concurrent  opinion  of  a  large  majority  of  Southern  far- 
mers that  there  has  been  a  gradual  and  steady  improve- 
ment in  the  quality  of  colored  labor  each  succeeding  year 
since  emancipation.  This  improvement,  too,  in  the  char- 
acter of  his  labor  has  been  in  the  face  of  difficulties  and  dis- 
•  couragement  that  the  proprietors  of  the  soil  have,  in  a  large 
measure,  been  responsible  for.  The  impolitic  course  pur- 
sued by  a  majority  of  planters,  in  neglecting  provision 
crops  and  stimulating  the  production  of  cotton  beyond  the 
healthy  and  legitimate  demands  of  the  trade,  so  as  to  bring 
the  price  of  her  raw  material  below  the  cost  of  production, 
has  made  labor  unremunerative,  and  taken  away  its  strong- 
est incentive.  Under  such  discouragements  we  have 
seen  the  white  man  become  restive  and  unsettled — often- 
times abandoning  his  vocation  as  a  tiller  of  the  soil,  and 
seeking  other  classes  of  business  more  promising  of  satis- 
factory results— while  the  negro,  sharing  largely  in  the 
losses  occasioned  by  an  unwise  direction  of  his  labor,  re- 
turning each  successive  year  with  steady  and  unflinching 
purpose  ot  his  task.  The  cotton  product,  taken  in  the  ag- 
gregate for  the  last  five  years,  exceeds  that  of  any  five 
years  during  the  period   of  slavery.     This  large  and  in- 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  '      41 

creased  yield  of  the  great  staple  of  the  South  has  not  only 
gone  beyond  the  calculations  of  the  planting  interest  ten 
years  ago,  but  has  greatly  surprised  the  best  economists  of 
the  day,  who  carefully  examine  every  factor  that  enters 
into  the  present  and  future  condition  of  trade  and  fi- 
nance, or  that  has  a  bearing  upon  the  general  production 
of  all  cIasse~of  industries.  While  it  is  true  that  the  increased 
amount  of  cotton  raised  during  the  last  five  years  is  not  to 
be  claimed  as  the  sole  product  of  negro  labor,  that  better 
systems  of  culture  of  the  soil,  and  the  use  of  fertilizers,  has 
contributed  to  it  largely,  yet  it  proves  that  we  have  labor 
suiticient,  both  as  to  quality  and  amount,  if  more  wisely 
and  properly  directed,  to  buHd  up  the  South,  and,  in  the 
course  of  time,  make  it  rich  and  prosperous  again. 

The  increase  of  production  in  cotton  is  accounted  for  by 
many  in  depreciation  of  negro  labor,  in  asserting  that  the 
laboring  force  in  the  cotton  field  has  been  largely  augmented 
by  the  increased  number  of  white  people  who  labor  in  the 
farm  since  the  war.  While  we  are  free  to  admit  that  num- 
bers of  our  people  who  were  raised  in  wealth,  and  unused 
to  toil,  have,  with  commendable  spirit,  joined  the  produc- 
tive force  of  the  country,  we  cannot  but  claim,  in  the  light 
of  actual  facts,  that  the  negro  constitutes  the  chief  element 
in  the  laboring  force  of  the  country.  Our  young  men 
rai  .ed  in  the  country  have  flocked  to  the  t<)wns  to  engage 
in  pursuits  more  congenial  to  their  taste,  and  more  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  mistaken  notions  of  gentility,  and  the 
number  of  mercantile  houses  in  almost  every  town  has 
doubled  since  the  close  of  the  war,  while  numbers  of  small 
farmers,  who  owned  no  slaves  before  the  war,  are  now 
working  the  negro  in  their  employ,  and  give  their  time 
more  in  superintending  than  in  actual  work.  One  of  the 
chief  causes  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  labor  of  the  Ireed- 
men  is  attributable  to  the  fact  that  our  people  were  long 
habituated  to  the  control  ot  slave  labor,  and  inexperienced 
in  that  of  free  labor.  In  our  mana  ement  of  the  negro,  as 
a  slave,  we  were  accustomed  to  exacting  an  implicit  obedi- 


42  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

ence  to  our  commands,  and  if  the  task  assigned  was  not 
performed,  the  master  had  the  right  to  administer  sucH  cor- 
rection as  he  thought  proper.  The  force  of  habit  in  con- 
trolling the  negro,  as  a  slave,  made  it  difficult  to  adjust  our 
thought  and  feeling  to  the  altered  condition  of  things. 
Hence  we  find  that  the  older  class  of  -outhern  farmers  have 
found  more  trouble,  and  been  less  successful  in  con  lucting 
their  farming  operations,  than  younger  men,  who  have 
adapted  themselves  with  more  ease  to  a  change  in  the  labor 
system  of  the  South. 

We  doubt  not  that  there  exists  a  better  understanding 
and  a  more  amicable  relation  between  the  white  proprietor 
and  negro  laborer  at  t\v:  South  than  there  is  to  be  found  in 
the  same  relation  of  capital  and  labor  at  the  North,  or  any 
European  country.  The  Northern  farmer  will  tell  you 
that  he  experiences  much  anxiety  and  frequent  loss  on  ac- 
count of  the  unreliability  of  the  white  laborer  that  he  has 
to  deal  with.  Farm  laborers  at  the  North,  whi  e  they 
have  not  organized  themselves  into  labor  unions  as  the 
mechanics,  miners  and  other  trades,  have,  at  the  same 
time,  imbibed  the  spirit  that  pervades  these  organiz  itions, 
and  are  lestless,  uncertain  and  exacting  in  their  demands. 
The  poor  man  and  laborer  at  the  North  receivnig  a  free 
education  in  the  public  schools,  is,  to  some  extent,  an  in- 
telligent thinking  man,  and  reads  the  newspaper,  by  v^hich 
his  mind  is  brought  in  contact  with  a  thousand  exciting 
influences,  and  these  tend  to  distract  him,  and  prevents 
him  from  sticking  to  steady  employment.  The  boundless 
extent  of  new  country  and  cheap  lands  opening  to  settle- 
ment in  the  great  West,  holds  out  its  attractions  to  him 
that  unsettles  his  local  attachments,  hence  he  is  here  to- 
day and  there  to  morrow,  ever  shifting  and  moving  in  the 
direction  of  the  great  El  Dorado  of  the  West. 

Repeated  experiments  have  been  made  by  Southern 
planters  with  emigrant  labor,  within  the  last  few  years, 
which  have  been  almost  uniformly  unsatisfactory,  and  in 
some  instances  attended  with  considerable  loss,  in  money 


THE   NEGRO   PROBLEM.  43 

advanced  to  pay  the  passage  from  Europe,  and  for  clothing 
and  supplies,  before  the  laborer  had  earned  anything.  The 
European  laborer  that  may  be  brought  here  is,  from  his 
training  and  habits,  unsuited  to  the  requirements  of  South- 
ern agriculture.  He  is  willing  to  contract  only  for  a  short 
term  of  service,  and  must  have  intervals  of  holiday,  with 
his  accustomed  diversions,  before  setting  into  work  again. 
This  kind  of  labor  may  suit  the  North,  or  the  grain  and 
hay  producing  States  of  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  Tennes- 
see, but  will  be  found  almost  worthless  in  the  cotton  region 
— requiring  steady  and  constant  labor  the  year  round.  The 
emigrant  that  may  come  as  a  laborer  is  not  content  to  oc- 
cupy the  cheap  houses  and  eat  the  plain  food  that  satisfies 
the  negro,  but  more  costly  houses  must  be  erected  for  his 
precarious  occupancy,  and  a  variety  of  food  cooked  to  his 
liking,  and  served  with  sugar  and  coffee,  before  he  is  will- 
ing to  enter  the  field,  and  then  kind  words  and  some  def- 
erence to  him  are  necessary  to  keep  him  there. 

While  the  industrial  interest  of  the  South  would  not  be 
subserved  by  introducing  foreign  emigrant  labor,  there  are 
good  reasons  for  the  opinion,  that  the  effect  upon  our  so- 
cial and  political  institutions  would  not  be  salutary  or 
beneficial.  The  class  that  has  already  corne,  and  would 
likely  come  in  the  future,  as  to  the  moral  status  and  gene- 
ral worth  of  character,  are  of  the  lowest  order,  are  gene- 
rally infidels  in  religion,  and  partaking  largely  of  the  Com- 
munistic spirit  that  pervades  the  lower  classes  in  Europs, 
would,  in  the  course  of  time,  form  here  an  element  of 
turbulence  and  agitation,  that  would  prove  an  unmitigated 
curse  to  the  countrj  . 

Many  persons,  in  considering  the  causes  that  have  ope- 
rated against  the  material  interest  of  the  South  since  the 
late  war,  have,  from  a  superficial  and  somewhat  prejudiced 
view,  attributed  them  to  the  character  of  our  labor,  whilst  a 
more  careful  examination  would  show  that  it  has  had  but 
a  secondary  and  partial  effect.  It  is  a  fact  generally  con- 
ceded, that    land    owners  have  exercised  a  controlling  in- 


44  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

fluence  in  the  division,  or  as  we  say  in  farmers'  parlance, 
"pitching  the  crop,"  and  for  the  most  part  have  their 
views  carried  out  in  the  method  of  culture  and  in  general 
plantation  economy.  And  we  doubt  not  that  most  farmers, 
from  experience  and  observation,  are  convinced  that  all 
field  crops,  where  proper  interest  and  attention  are  mani- 
fested by  the  employer,  are  cultivated  as  well  and  gathered 
as  promptly  as  was  done  by  slave  labor.  If  this  be  the 
case,  we  must  look  toother  causes  than  that  of  inefficiency 
of  the  present  laboring  force,  for  any  failure  on  the  part  of 
the  farming  interest,  in  contributing  its  due  share  towards 
restoring  the  industrial  prosperity  of  the  South. 

The  question  here  involved  is  one  of  vital  importance  to 
the  Southern  people,  and  though  its  discussion  may  appear 
to  involve  a  class  of  facts  not  germain  to  fhe  subject  of 
negro  labor,  vet  they  have  a  connection  and  bearing  that 
must  be  considered  in  forming  any  intelligent  and  correct 
opinion  on  the  industrial  situation  of  the  South. 

The  subject  of  labor  has  been  but  little  studied  and  but 
partially  understood  by  our  people,  as  a  question  of  politi- 
cal economy.  This,  we  think,  has  not  been  owing  to  ar.y 
indisposition  to  investigate  it  as  a  practical  or  economic 
question,  but  attributable  rather  lo  the  fact,  that  those  who 
formerly  controlled  the  labor  of  the  South  had  a  proprie- 
tary interest  in  it — were  entitled  to  all  the  profits  arising 
from  its  employment,  after  furnishing  the  laborer  with  food 
and  clothing.  Hence,  there  being  no  division  of  profits 
arising  from  the  employment  of  labor,  the  land-owner 
looked  to  other  causes  for  the  increase  or  curtailment  of 
wealth,  such  as  the  state  of  the  seasons,  the  degree  of  fer- 
tility of  his  lands,  the  price  of  cotton,  etc.  But  since  a 
system  of  free  labor  has  obtained,  and  the  margin  of  profits 
narrowed  down  by  a  remuneration  for  the  labor  expended, 
it  behooves  us  to  study  the  question  of  labor  in  its  eco- 
nomical aspects,  if  we  expect  to  succeed  in  any  department 
we  may  employ  it.  The  great  blunder  on  the  part  of  the 
land-holder  at  the  South  in  the  past,  was  a  failure  to  rec- 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  45 

o^nhe  his  lands  as  capital.  His  aim  and  effort  was 
to  increase  his  labor  at  the  expense  of  his  landed  interest 
— a  plan  that  ignored  all  improvements  of  the  soil,  and 
tended  rapidly  to  waste  and  exhaustion.  Hence  we  find  a 
large  per  cent,  of  the  cultivated  lands  at  the  South  in.pov- 
erished  to  a  degree  that  barely  pays  for  the  labor  expended 
— attributable  solely  to  the  injudicious  direction  of  labor. 

It  was  hoped  that  the  great  revolution  that  has  swept 
over  our  country,  subverting  our  system  of  labor,  and  pro- 
ducing such  marked  changes  in  our  social  and  political  re- 
lations, would  have  brought  about  a  corresponding  change 
in  our  industrial  system,  but  we  fear  that  a  repetition  of 
the  impolicy  and  errors  of  the  past  are  likely  to  impede 
our  progress  for  years  to  come. 

It  has  been  said  by  an  eminent  writer  on  political  econ- 
omy, that  labor  is  the  only  source  of  wealth.  The  more 
carefully  we  examine  the  proposition,  the  more  thoroughly 
we  are  convinced  of  its  force  and  soundness.  Labor  is  the 
agency  .hat  not  only  supplies  the  immediate  and  pressing 
wants  of  mankind  in  food,  clothing  and  the  comforts  of 
life,  but,  when  properly  directed,  is  continually  creating 
new  values  in  excess  of  consumption,  that  go  to  augment 
the  wealth  of  communities  and  nations.  How  important 
that  this  great  productive  force  we  call  labor,  should  not 
only  be  active  and  ef^cient,  but  controlled  by  intelligence 
and  skill,  that  will  enable  us  to  achieve  the  highest  and 
best  results. 

In  viewing  the  industrial  history  of  the  South,  we  find 
that  while  she  had  an  active  and  well  organized  system  of 
labor,  she  created  by  it  but  little  permanent  wealth,  and 
continued  as  a  mere  tributary  and  feeder  to  outside  cap- 
ital. It  has  been  said  that  the  kind  and  quality  of  labor- 
that  obtained  under  the  old  tegime  was,  per  se,  mainly 
strumental  in  shaping  the  industrial  policy  of  the  past,  and 
that  no  better  results  could  have  been  obtained  by  any 
change  in  its  application  or  direction.  Had  the  Southern 
people  directed  even  a  modicum  of  their  surplus  capital  and 


46  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

labor  to  the  manufacturing  interest  in  its  different  branches 
forthe  last  quarter  of  a  century  preceding  the  war,  there 
would  have  been  a  diffusion  of  capital,  not  of  an  ephem- 
eral nature,  to  be  swept  away  by  emancipation  proclama- 
tions, but  which  would  have  remained  as  permanent  and  un- 
failing sources  of  wealth  to  the  South.  At  present,  we 
find  in  our  towns  and  cities  nearly  all  the  capital  and  en- 
terprise confined  to  mercantile  pursuits — overcrowded  in 
every  branch  by  a  competition  that  produces  a  plethora  of 
stock,  and  a  consequent  diminution  of  profits  that  must 
result  unfortunately  to  this  large  class  of  our  business  men. 

Mercantile  pursuits,  while  they  are  highly  advantageous 
and  indispensable  in  affecting  an  exchange  of  commodities, 
yet  contribute  but  little,  in  comparison  with  agricultural 
and  manufacturing  interests,  in  building  up  and  enric^iing  a 
people. 

The  profi's  on  the  former  are  made  up  from  the  sur- 
rounding country,  and  amount  merely  to  an  exchange, 
while  the  latter  create  new  and  permanent  values  that  add 
to  the  wealth  of  a  State.  We  will  state,  in  this  connection, 
that  we  allude  to  manufactures  incidentally,  it  not  being 
our  purpose  to  present  any  facts  or  statistics  to  show  iheir 
utility  in  an  industrial  point  of  view,  but  to  notice  more  es- 
pecially the  necessity  for  division  of  labor  upon  the  farm. 

It  would  be  no  difficult  task  to  show  that  the  South  had 
gained  very  little  in  material  prosperity  for  the  last  twenty 
years  preceding  the  war.  There  was,  it  is  true,  a  vast 
amount  of  values  created  in  the  production  of  cotton,  su- 
gar, rice,  etc.,  but  the  former  (her  chief  staple)  being  pietty 
much  all  exported  in  the  raw  state,  the  South  thereby  lost 
a  large  per  cent,  upon  the  real  value  of  its  product,  while 
the  annual  returns  from  its  sale  went  for  supplies  that  were 
manufactured,  or  furnished  from  beyond  the  limits  of  our 
section.  But  the  magnitude  of  the  error  consisted  in  stim- 
ulating the  production  of  cotton  in  excess  of  the  legitimate 
demands  of  the  trade,  paying  no  attention  whatever  to  the 
economic  law  of  supply  and  demand,  until  her  vast  system 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  4< 

of  labor  was  employed  in  a  way  that  brought  but  little 
remuneration  or  profit  to  increase  her  capital.  It  is  true 
that  the  excessive  supply  of  cotton  was  annually  consumed 
by  converting  a  considerable  portion  into  the  coarser  fab- 
rics and  articles,  besides  clothing,  that  should  have  been 
manufactured  of  hemp  (the  cost  of  production  being  much 
less);  but  cotton,  on  account  of  the  liberal  supply,  became 
cheaper  than  hemp,  and  substituted  this  material,  while  the 
cost  of  production  was  at  least  thirty-three  per  cent,  more 
than  the  latter.  Under  such  a  system  the  South  was  fast 
reaching  a  point  where  all  progress  would  have  been 
checked,  and  began  the  retrograde  movement.  The  pres- 
ent impoverished  condition  of  the  soil,  the  absence  of  all 
branches  of  manufiicturing  interest,  and  capital  generally, 
are  convincing  proofs  of  its  impolicy. 

There  is  no  greater  error  in  political  economy  than  to 
concentrate  all  the  labor  of  a  country,  in  a  measure  upon  a 
single  product,  or  upon  a  single  branch  of  industry.  This 
has  certainly  been  strongly  exemplified  before  the  Southern 
people  in  the  results  of  the  last  six  years  farming  opera- 
tions and  is  still  more  forcibly  illustrated  in  the  compara- 
tive results  of  farm  industry  in  the  Northern  and  Southern 
Slates.  We  will  take  for  the  illustration  of  the  latter  pro- 
position the  farm  statistics  presented  by  the  census  reports 
of  I860,  as  the  Southern  States  did  not  have  their  indus- 
tries and  wealth  disturbed  and  devastated  at  that  date,  as 
has  since  been  done  by  war.  The  cotton  crop  of  Georgia, 
for  example,  in  1860  was  701,840  bales,  yielding  little 
more  than  $30,000,000,  while  the  butter  of  New  York,  one 
of  the  several  products  of  the  dairy,  was  estimated  at  ;^60,- 
000,000;  and  yet  the  census  gives  to  New  York  370,914 
farm  laborers,  and  to  Georgia,  including  white  farm  labor- 
ers, and  the  males  of  the  slave,  316,478  persons  engaged 
in  agriculture.  Besides  the  other  dairy  products,  the  prin- 
cipal crops — corn,  wheat,  potatoes  and  oats — (not  counting 
the  minor  cereal  products  of  gardens  and  orchards,  or  mis- 
cellaneous products,)  the  currency  value  of  the  agricultural 


48  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

productions  of  the  sins:Tle  State  of  New  York  was  eight 
times  greater  than  that  of  Georgia,  with  about  the  same 
amouut  of  labor,  and  more  than  the  money  returns  of  any- 
cotton  crop  ever  produced  in  the  Southern  States, 

And  to  carry  the  illustration  farther,  we  will  take  another 
Southern  State,  (instead  of  the  State  of  New  York,)' where 
both  States  have  suffered  alike  in  the  loss  of  capital,  repre- 
sented by  slave  property,  and  have  had  their  labor  system 
subverted  by  the  emancipation  of  the  slave.  We  take  the 
last  census  report  (1870.)  and  will  premise  the  statement 
cf  the  statistical  data,  by  saying  that  Kentucky  (the  State 
we  have  selected  for  comparison  with  that  of  Georgia)  has 
carried  on  a  mixed  husbandry,  embracing  as  crops — corn, 
the  smaller  cereals,  hay,  hemp,  etc.,  the  latter  as  a  market 
crop  exclusively,  and  selling  each  year  any  surplus  of  the 
other  farm  products  mentioned.  Her  system  of  fanning 
includes  the  rearing  of  horses,  mules,  Cc  ttle  and  hogs,  which 
form  the  chief  item  of  her  exchangeable  products,  and  con- 
stitutes the  main  feature  in  her  industrial  system.  For  the 
sake  of  brevity,  we  use  the  tabular  form: 

Tiie  census  for  1870  gives  the  number : 
Fiirm  lahor<ers  in  Gee gia 33o  487 

''  "        "    Kentucky 2o',.588 

No.  o{  acres  in  farms  in  G<».-rgi,i ..... .23  (i47,941 

"  Kentucky IS.IJUO,  106 

Value  of  farm  products  in  Georgia $80  890,238 

"    Kentucky  $87.477,:}74 

Aggregate  value  of  .farms  in^  Georgia  $9l,5-)9,403 

"    Keniucky |all,-2:^8,916 

Live  stock  in  money  value  in  Gi^orgia $".0,1."»6,817 

"      "  "  "       "    Kentucky $0(3,287.343 

A>'er:ige  size  of  farms  in  Georjiia  (acres) 338 

"       "  Kentucky    "     158 

From  this  brief  statistical  view,  we  see  the  vast  dispro- 
portion between  the  employment  of  laborso  as  to  diversify 
the  products  of  the  farm,  against  the  concentration  of  it  upon 
one  grand  division  of  productive  industry.  However  profi- 
tablethe  rearing  of  any  given  product  may  be  at  a  time,  it  can 
only  remain  so  as  loner  as  the  supply  comes  within  the  limits 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  49 

of  a  healthy  demand.  Governed  by  this  principle,  the  plar. 
ter  should  study  the  cotton  interest  in  its  economic  aspects  ; 
not  only  should  he  estimate  the  cost  of  production,  but  as- 
certain from  the  best  sources  of  information,  the  present 
and  prospective  supply  at  home  and  abroad,  and  the 
commercial  and  monetary  situation  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
cotton  trade,  with  the  view  of  settling  in  his  own  mind 
the  amount  of  profits  likely  to  accrue  from  the  effort  ex- 
pended. Improved  methods  of  culture  and  the  judicious 
use  of  fertilizers  are  objective  points  in  the  farmer's  plans, 
but  should  be  made  to  subserve  the  important  end  of 
limiting  the  cost  rather  than  increasing  the  amount  of  pro- 
duction. 

There  are  those  that  figure  in  our  agricultural  conven- 
tions, who  tell  us  that  increased  production  is  the  policy, 
and  by  that  means  we  shall  break  down  the  cotton  interest 
in  other  countries,  and  enjoy  the  monopoly  we  had  before 
the  war.  Such  men  are  false  guides,  and  show  their  ig- 
norance of  facts  that  are  too  obvious  to  be  controverted. 
The  pressure  of  the  cotton  famine  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  manufacturing  interest  of  England  during  our  late  war, 
has  aroused  her  to  the  importance  of  developing  cotton 
production  in  her  East  India  provinces,  so  as  not  to  jeopar- 
dize her  home  interest  by  a  like  contingency  again.  We 
have  before  us  statistics  prepared  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Manchester  Supply  Association,  showing  the  increased 
production  of  India  cotton  in  the  last  fifteen  years.  In  1860 
the  sum  paid  to  India  was  ^17,500,000;  in  1864,  before 
the  close  of  the  American  war,  it  had  increased  to 
;^190,000,000,and  though  the  average  annual  amount  remit- 
ted from  England  for  cotton  during  the  last  ten  years  has 
fallen  off,  it  still  amounts  to  ^150,000,000.  We  ascer- 
tain from  these  figures,  that  England  is  now  consum- 
ing about  three  times  as  much  India  cotton  as  she  did 
in  1860,  notwithstanding  the  South  has,  by  neglecting 
food  crops,  stimulated  her  cotton  supply  to  her  full  ca- 
pacity.    Cotton  culture  is  every  year  receiving  increased 

4 


50  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

attention  in  Egypt,  Turkey,  Brazil  and  other  countries, 
which  a  few  years  ago  were  scarcely  thought  of  as  sources 
of  supply. 

These  facts  should  be  pondered  by  the  Southern  far- 
mer, as  they  serve  to  show  very  clearly  the  changes 
that  have  been  produced  within  the  last  fifteen  years, 
and  indicate  no  less  clearly  the  course  he  should  pur- 
sue. The  straitened  condition  of  our  people  after  the 
sale  of  our  four  million  bales  of  cotton,  in  an  average 
of  the  last  four  years,  show  us  the  folly  of  concentrat- 
ing all  labor  and  effort  on  this  single  product.  The 
climate,  soil  and  products  of  Georgia  give  her  people 
advantages  for  mixed  husbandry  that  no  other  section 
or  country  surpasses.  Let  us  not  longer  neglect  or  abuse 
these  advantages  by  continuing  the  errors  of  the  past, 
but  appropriate  them  by  a  better  system  of  agricultural 
development — one  that  will  not  make  other  people  the 
beneficiaries  of  our  toil,  but  secure  to  ourselves  the  fruits 
of  a  well  'directed  industry. 

We  are  essentially  an  agricultural  people,  and  we  must 
look  to  this  great  interest  as  the  basis  upon  which  to 
build  up  the  permanent  welfare  of  our  coimtry.  To  do 
this  we  must  use  all  the  means  which  experience,  aided 
by  science,  has  placed  at  our  disposal.  The  sun,  in  his 
d-ily  circuit, shines  upon  no  country  that  possesess  greater 
advantages  than  the  belt  included  within  the  30th  and 
35th  parallels  of  latitude,  embracing  Georgia  and  the 
States  lying  directly  west,  to  the  Rio  Grande.  Though 
this  country  has  been  torn  and  blasted  by  war,  and 
sustained  losses  in  property,  in  an  amount  unparalleled 
in  modern  times,  yet  we  have  resources,  if  developed 
by  a  wise  policy,  that  would  in  a  few  years  transform 
our  impoverished  and  depressed  land  into  one  blooming 
with  plenty,  prosperity  and  gladness.  If  by  concert  of 
action  among  the  planting  interest,  the  production  of 
cotton  was  limitted  to  two  and  a  half  millions  of  bales 
per  year,  (England  must  have  and  will  have  that  amount 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  51 

of  American  cotton  at  any  price,)  and  Southern  farmers 
would  turn  the  surplus  of  labor  and  capital  in  excess  of 
what  is  necessary  to  produce  that  amount  to  the  im- 
provement of  lands,  and  to  the  wise  economy  of  a  mixed 
husbandry,  they  would  become  in  the  next  quarter  of  a 
century  the  richest  agricultural  people  on  the  globe. 
This  desideratum  is  not  likely  to  be  obtained,  and  it 
may  be  considered  chimerical  to  expend  thought  upon 
it,  yet  if  our  agricultural  conventions,  aided  by  the  public 
press,  should  continue  to  agitate  this  line  of  agricultural 
policy,  and  impress  it  constantly  upon  the  minds  of  the 
people,  much  might  be  done  towards  its  accomplishment. 
Our  labor  system,  though  not  properly  organized,  and 
not  as  available  and  efficient  as  it  might  be,  yet  the  negro 
is  undoubtedly  better  fitted  by  his  long  training,  his  men- 
tal habitudes,  his  physical  configuration  and  his  adaptability 
to  all  the  diversities  of  our  climate,  to  make  a  more  effi- 
cient laborer  than  any  other.  Our  object  should  be  to  de- 
velop to  the  utmost  his  capacity  as  a  laborer.  To  do  this, 
time  is  requisite.  He  must  be  trained,  adjusted  and 
adapted  to  the  new  order  of  things,  as  well  as  the  former 
master.  We  must  exercise  towards  him  great  forbearance, 
with  firmness,  kindness  and  candor;  respect  him  for  the 
deference  shown  to  us,  and  cultivate  feelings  of  interest  and 
attachment,  in  all  the  proper  relations  that  we  may  sus- 
tain to  him.  But  to  create  and  maintain  this  desirable  re- 
lation, the  white  man  must  act  towards  them  with  strict 
reference  to  their  race  peculiarities.  He  must  treat  them 
as  inferiors,  not  as  equals,  as  they  are  not  satisfied  with 
equahty,  and  will  dispise  the  white  man,  and  have  a  feeling 
of  contempt  for  him  who  attempts  to  raise  one  or  more  of 
them  to  an  equality  with  himself.  There  is  no  individual- 
ity in  the  character  of  the  negro,  no  inherent  resources, 
no  power  of  self- direction  and  self-help-  and  consequent- 
ly he  needs  government  in  everything. 

He  must  be  kindly  taken  under  the  patronage  and  pro- 
tection of  the  white  man,  who  can  organize  and  plan,  and 


52  THE   NEGRO   PROBLEM, 

with  the  necessary,  oversight,  leave  the  task  to  the  negro, 
who  is  endowed  by  nature  with  the  physical  power  for  its 
execution.  We  must  identify  him  in  thought,  feeling  and 
interest  with  the  white  people  of  the  South,  by  arguments 
that  appeal  to  his  senses  and  give  him  convincing  proof  of 
our  concern  in  his  behalf.  We  must  make  him  feel  that 
his  interest  is  indissolubly  bound  up  with  ours ;  that  high 
prices  for  our  produce  insures  him  a  high  price  for  his 
labor,  and  that  any  unfortuitous  circumstances,  whether 
resulting  from  natural  causes  or  the  evils  of  bad  govern- 
ment, which  rest  upon  the  white  people  of  the  South,  fall 
with  equal  force  upon  him.  We  must  disabuse  the 
mind  of  the  negro  of  any  belief  that  he  will  ever  be  in  dan- 
ger of  re-enslavement,  as  this  has  been  a  source  of  painful 
anxiety  to  many  of  them,  and  very  probably  has  a  great 
deal  to  do  in  forming  their  party  affiliations  and  in  the  di- 
rection of  their  votes.  We  should  convince  them  that  we 
have  no  animosity  towards  them,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  the  kindest  feeling,  engendered  by  early  associations, 
and  old  memories.  As  rights  of  person  and  property  are 
guaranteed  by  organic  law,  and  conceded  by  all  our  peo- 
ple, we  should  respect  them  as  sacredly  as  we  do  the  rights 
of  our  white  friend  and  neighbor.  We  should  be  scruplu- 
lously  just  in  all  our  transactions  with  him,  as  it  is  our 
interest  as  well  as  our  duty  to  do  so.  To  practice  a  fraud  or 
swindle  upon  them,  creates  a  mistrust  of  the  white  race, 
encourages  them  to  acts  of  theft,  and  demoralizes  their 
labor  by  taking  away  the  just  reward  for  service  rendered 
— the  strongest  incentive  to  labor.  In  a  word,  convince 
him  that  we  are  his  best  if  not  his  only  friends,  and  when 
we  shall  have  done  this,  we  shall  not  only  have  placed  our 
labor  on  a  sound  footing,  and  have  in  the  negro  popula- 
tion the  most  valuable  peasantry  in  the  world,  but  we  have 
gained  in  the  laborer,  an  ally  that  may  be  relied  on  in  the 
sterner  exigencies,  as  well  as  in  the  more  peaceful  pur- 
suits of  life. 

THE  NEGRO  IN  POLITICS. 
The  late  amendments  to  the  Federal  Constitution,  fixing 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  53 

the  political  status  of  the  negro  in  the  Southern  States,  in 
vesting  him  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  an  American 
citizen,  was  brought  about  by  no  direct  agency  upon  the 
part  of  the  negro,  but  grew  out  of  the  animosities  engen- 
dered by  the  war,  and  the  settled  purpose  of  the  dominant 
party  to  secure  a  permanent  hold  upon  the  administration 
of  public  affairs  in  the  United  States.  They  saw  that  the 
war  feeling  at  the  North  would  soon  subside  and  give  place 
to  more  amicable  relations  between  the  people  of  the  sec- 
tions, and  hence  a  two-fold  purpose  would  be  accompHshed 
by  placing  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of  the  negro  at  once,  to- 
wit :  the  humiliation  of  Southern  pride,  and  the  bringing  in 
of  the  negro  as  a  political  ally,  whose  support  they  might 
safely  depend  on  in  the  future  in  their  efforts  to  maintain 
political  supremacy. 

The  political  history  of  no  enlightened  government  in 
modern  times  has  been  marked  with  such  utter  disregard 
of  just  and  rational  principle,  and  the  prostitution  of  the 
power  and  functions  of  government  to  the  base  purposes  of 
malignity  and  revenge,  as  was  so  clearly  evinced  in  the  at 
tempt  of  the  Radical  party  to  adjust  the  disturbed  rela- 
tions of  Ihe  two  parties  in  the  late  unfortunate  conflict.  To 
dwell  upon  the  scenes  of  the  fraud,  falsehood  and  political 
knavery  which  conceived  and  brought  forth  the  reconstruc- 
tion measures,  and  the  arbitrary  and  oppressive  manner  in 
which  they  were  carried  out — by  giving  loose  reign  to  mili- 
tary satraps,  are  too  familiar  and  painfully  impressed  upon 
the  Southern  mind  for  rehearsal. 

The  giving  of  the  ballot  to  the  Southern  negro  resulted, 
in  less  than  three  years  after  it  was  done,  in  the  accumula. 
tion  of  more  than  one  hundred  millions  of  Southern  State 
liability  beyond  what  an  honest  administration  of  these 
State  governments  should  have  cost  in  that  time.  This  vast 
sum  of  public  liabilities,  incurred  mainly  in  schemes  of 
fraud  and  plunder — resting  upon  States  already  devastated 
and  ruined  by  war — if  its  payment  was  guaranteed,  would 
tax  the  energies  and  resources  of  their  people  for  genera- 


54  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

tions  to  come.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  discuss  the  validity 
of  the  pubHc  debt  imposed  under  Radical  rule,  the  ability 
of  the  Southern  people  to  meet  it,  or  the  policy  of  repudi- 
ating such  obligations,  but  we  simply  refer  to  them  as  a 
pregnant  illustration  of  the  evils  of  universal  suffrage  at  the 
South. 

While  the  negro  has  been  the  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  corrupt  and  unprincipled  adventurers  from  the  North  of 
inflicting  an  enormous  load  of  pubHc  debt  upon  the  South- 
ern State  governments,  he  cannot,  in  any  sense,  be  held 
responsible  for  the  evil  he  has  wrought  The  carpet-bag- 
ger, who  has  manipulated  the  negro  in  his  own  interest  and 
to  his  liking,  brought  the  powerful  incentives  to  bear  upon 
the  weak  and  credulous  mind  of  the  colored  voter — the  one 
an  appeal  to  his  fears  in  the  false  assertion  that  the  for- 
mer master  would  seek  to  re-enslave  him,  and  that  his  only 
way  of  escape  from  the  clutches  of  slavery  was  in  giving 
political  support  to  his  new  friend — the  carpet-bagger — and 
keeping  him  in  permanent  control  of  the  State  govern- 
ments. The  other  incentive  was  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
negroe's  cupidity,  in  holding  out  to  him,  a  division  of 
Southern  property,  and  that  the  negroe's  share  for  faith- 
ful allegiance  to  the  Radical  party  would  be  "  forty  acres 
and  a  mule,"  to  set  him  up  in  life,  and  place  him  in  an  in- 
dependent relation  to  the  Southern  whites.  Under  such 
appeals  to  his  fears  and  cupidity,  we  saw  the  negro  so  per- 
fectly drilled  and  so  thoroughly  organized  as  to  become  a 
mere  automaton  in  the  hands  of  a  few  miscreants,  who 
sought,  through  such  agency,  political  stations  for  the  pelf 
and  plunder  that  might  be  secured  in  the  corrupt  adminis- 
tration of  public  office.  In  the  quiet  submission  to  the 
miserable  carpet-bag  rule,  the  Southern  people  have  ex- 
hibited a  spirit  of  forbearance,  and  degree  of  fortitude  un- 
der its  infliction,  that  becomes  difficult  to  reconcile  with 
the  proud,  chivalric  spirit  that  has  always  characterized 
them.  It  was  not  the  fear  of  Federal  bayonets,  or  the 
power  that  wielded  them,  but  due  to  that  spirit  of  conser- 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  55 

vatism love  of  law  and  order — that  has  been  a  traditional 

and  firmly  fixed  trait  in  the  Southern  character. 

The  brief  political  history  of  the  negro  at  the  South  has 
brought  out  two  important  facts  that  may  be  useful  in  the 
future  in  solving  the  political  problem  that  presents  itself 
in  connection  with  this  race.  One  of  these  facts  is,  that  he 
has  no  affinity  for  the  white  race  in  politxs,  as  well  as  in 
social  life  and  religion,  and  as  soon  as  all  extraneous  force 
is  removed,  he  will  become  isolated,  and  independent,  as 
far  as  he  can,  of  the  control  and  contact  of  the  white  man. 
The  other  important  fact  disclosed  by  his  brief  political 
career  is,  that  he,  though  possessed  of  a  clanish  spirit  in  a 
high  degree,  is  incapable  of  organization,  and  if  left  to  him- 
self, without  the  leadership  and  drilling  tact  of  the  white 
man,  must,  irrespective  of  numerical  power,  yield  political 
control  to  the  superior  race. 

We  are  not  of  that  number  who  believe  that  the  evil 
day  had  past,  and  our  political  troubles  ended,  upon  an 
overthrow  of  the  Radical  party  in  Georgia.  Its  hold  upon 
our  State  Government  was  seen  at  its  accession  to 
power,  to  be  temporary  and  short-lived,  could  only  be 
propped  up  by  external  force,  such  as  given  to  it  by  Fed- 
eral bayonets,  and  with  the  removal  of  the  latter,  their 
bogus  government,  or  rather,  base  usurpation  of  power, 
would  crumble  to  pieces  of  its  own  weakness  and  rotten- 
ness, and  that  legitimate  power  would  be  remanded  to 
those  who  would  rightfully  rule  in  the  interest  of  peace, 
order  and  enlightened  government.  If  universal  suffrage 
is  to  be  permanently  engrafted  upon  our  political  institu- 
tions and  become  the  settled  policy  of  the  country,  we 
would  prefer  seeing  parties  divide  in  the  color  line,  as  a 
choice  of  evils  between  the  negro  as  forming  an  organized 
Radical  party,  and  that  of  the  negro  as  a  great  mass  of 
floating  voters.  There  are  those  who  believe  that,  with 
the  disruption  of  the  Radical  party,  and  its  complete  dis- 
memberment, as  has  been  the  case  in  Georgia,  Tennessee 
and  Virginia,  that  parties  in  the  future  in  these  States,  and 


56  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

Others  that  may'establish  complete  Democratic  ascendency, 
will  be  divided  on  questions  of  public  policy,  solely,  and 
that  political  contests  in  the  future  will  be  between  parties 
equally  honest  and  patriotic,  and  that  it  will  be  of  little 
consequence  which  party  for  the  time  may  administer  our 
State  governments.  This  assumption  was  applicable  to 
the  status  of  parties  as  they  existed  previous  to  the  adop- 
tion of  the  14th  Amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution, 
but  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  voting  privilege  has  been 
conferred  by  this  provision  of  the  Constitution,  upon  an 
ignorant  and  degraded  class  of  our  population,  nearly 
equaling  in  many  States  that  of  the  whites,  and  in  a  few 
States  outnumbering  it,  dispels  such  an  assumption  as 
unworthy  of  serious  argument. 

We  cannot  forecast  political  events  that  belong  to  the 
future,  nor  anticipate  with  certainty  the  issues  that  may 
divide  the  people  of  Georgia  in  the  near  future.  [But 
while  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  Democratic  party 
of  Georgia  will  maintain  its  integrity,  so  far  as  Federal 
politics  may  be  concerned,  at  least  as  long  as  the  Radical 
party  forms  one  of  the  great'national  parties,  yet  as  to  State 
politics  and  the  issues  that  will  come  before  the  people 
of  Georgia,  it  is  equally  probable  that  they  will  divide, 
and  that  opposing  parties  will  exist  in  our  State.  It  may 
be  that  the  rights  of  property  in  some  form  may  be  as- 
sailed, the  public  school  question  become  an  issue,  or  any 
other  question  upon  which  the  people  may  divide  with  the 
more  conservative,  patriotic  and  better  class  of  citizens 
forming  one  party,  and  a  class  wanting  in  private  worth 
and  public  virtue  forming  the  opposing  party.  In  such  an 
event  it  could  not  be  foreseen  which  party  would  prevail 
and  what  would  be  the  result,  where  a  great  mass  of  float- 
ing voters  of  a  different  race  held  the  balance  of  power. 

It  has  been  asserted  by  some,  who  have  endeavored  to 
forecast  the  probable  drift  of  the  negro  in  politics,  that  he 
will  soon  settle]  down  into  a  state  of  indifference  as  to 
voting,  and  remain  as  a  mere  cypher  in  the  body  poHtic. 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  57 

This  would  be  very  probably  true  in  the  absence  of  all 
incentive  to  vote,  and  if  left  entirely  to  his  own  volition  in 
the  matter.  Under  a  free  government  like  ours,  Adhere 
t.hc  avenues  to  office  are  opened  to  every  citizen,  and  offi- 
cial positions,  high  and  low,  are  eagerly  sought  after,  and 
since  the  morale  of  politics  has  been  greatly  lowered  by 
various  agences  at  work  since  the  war,  it  cannot  be  but 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  negro  will  be  drawn  out  at 
future  elections  by  opposing  candidates,  and  that  the  col- 
ored vote  will  be  the  balance  of  power  between  those  who 
desire  honest,  faithful  administration  of  public  law,  and 
the  mere  trading  politician  who  seeKS  office  for  selfish  and 
corrupt  purposes. 

The  power  and  purposes  of  venal  office-seekers  for  mis- 
chief, have  been  curtailed  and  kept  under  by  the  severe 
discipline  of  the  Democratic  party  for  the  last  four  years — 
a  discipline  rendered  necessary  by  the  existence  of  the 
Radical  party,  and  the  fear,  it  not  the  danger,  of  its  ob- 
taining control  again  of  county  and  State  offices ;  while 
now,  having  ceased  to  excite  the^fear  of  again  acceeding  to 
power,  will  relax  the  force  of  organization  in  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  Georgia,  and  make  the  civil  offices  of  the 
State  an  easy  prey  to  the  mere  place-hunter. 

While  there  can  be  no  w<ill-grounded  fear  of  the  politi- 
cal action  of  the  negro  as  an  organized  party,  in  any 
of  those  States  where  the  Radical  party  has  been  dis- 
placed, or  that  our  political  institutions  will  receive  an 
direct  injury  in  controlling  the  floating  negro  vote,  yet  the 
immediate  danger  lies  in  the  temptations  it  presents  to 
white  office-seekers,  and  the  corrupting  influences  it  will 
inevitably  wield  upon  our  elections.  There  are  to  be 
found  at  all  times  and  places,  unscrupulous  men  passing  in 
the  guise  of  respectability,  who  are  in  quest  of  office,  not 
from  the  prompting  of  honor  and  patriotism,  but  from  the 
desire  of  place  and  greed  of  gain,  who  will  rally  the  negro, 
obtain  his  vote  by  appeals  to  his  cupidity,  and  low-born 
pride,  and  secure  their  election  to  places  of  public  trust, 


58  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

in  which  the  incumbent  will  be  a  degradation  to  the  office, 
and  a  counterfeit  upon  the  authority  that  belongs  to  it* 
Human  nature  is  the  same  everywhere.  It  has  too  often 
been  the  practice  of  men  in  political  life  under  free  gov- 
ernments to  avail  themselves  of  every  means  to  forward 
schemes  of  interest  and  ambition,  when  favorable  oppor- 
tunities presented  themselves.  Certainly  no  age  or  country, 
with  free  institutions,  has  presented  a  broader  or  more  in- 
viting field  for  the  successful  practice  of  the  arts  of  political 
trickery,  an  I  official  knavery,  than  is  now  offered  in  the 
Southern  States,  with  universal  suffrage.  In  the  State  of 
Georgia,' for  instance,  we  have  80,000  negro  voters — nearly 
one-half  the  voting  population  of  the  State — who  are  not 
only  ignorant  and  degraded,  but  dependent  upon  their 
daily  exertions  for  the  me  uisof  living.  Is  it  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  a  person,  who  would  polish  a  gentleman's 
boots,  go  on  an  errand,  or  any  other  menial  service  for  a 
dime,  would  not  in  like  manner  dispose  of  his  vote  for  a 
very  trifling  consideration?  This  element  in  our  political 
society  must  be  regarded  in  the  future  as  floating  voters, 
since  their  Radical  drill-masters  have  abandoned  their  vo- 
cation of  marching  them  to  the  polls  in  the  carpet-bag  or 
scalawag  interest,  and  will  hereafter  be  found  at  the  po- 
litical shambles,  to  be  bought  up  by  men  who  expect  to 
make  tax-payers  reimburse  the  bill  of  expenses. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  a  large  per  cent,  of  white 
voters,  who  are  not  indifferent  to  filling  the  civil  offices  of 
the  State  with  honest  and  capable  incumbents,  yet  cannot 
be  induced  to  take  an  active  working  interest  in  defeating 
unworthy  aspirants. 

One  of  the  greatest  evils  connected  with  American  pol- 
itics at  the  present  time,  is  the  enormous  increase  of 
county  and  municipal  indebtedness,  occurring  through  the 
political  legerdemain  of  small-beer  politicians.  What  will 
it  become,  we  might  ask,  when  the  ignorant  negro,  freed 
from  carpet-bag  rule,  becomes  a  great  mass  of  flo-ting 
voters — standing  upon  every  street  corner,  waiting  tor  the 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  59 

pabulum  whi  i  -^  n  in  quest  of  office  have  in  store  for 
him  ?  We  have  already  seen  outcroppings  of  this  evil  in 
recent  county  and  municipal  elections  in  various  sections 
of  the  State,  which  give  earnest  of  what  it  will  become  at 
no  distant  day,  despite  the  remonstrance  and  persistent 
efforts  of  the  more  decent  and  patriotic  portion  of  her  cit- 
izens. The  disgusting  scenes  that  would  be  enacted  at 
every  recurring  election  around  the  negro  in  treating, 
''honey-fuggling"  and  elbuwin  ;  him  to  the  polls,  would  be 
demoralizing,  and  leveling  in  the  extreme,  and  soon  bring 
us  on  a  par  with  the  mongrel,  semi-civilized  states  of  Mex- 
ico and  Sjuih  America. 

In  the  State  of  Georgia,  before  the  late  war,  it  is  well 
known  to  those  familiar  with  the  history  of  party  politics, 
that  there  was  a  very  small  per  cent,  (not  exceeding  a  few 
thousand)  ot  what  is  known  as  floating  voters  in  the  State. 
Yet  this  class  of  voters  held  the  balance  of  power  between 
the  two  great  parties  of  the  country.  The  one  that 
manifested  the  more  zeal  and  active  efforts,  generally 
succeeded  in  winning  the  victory  at  the  polls.  The  dis- 
tinction of  property  and  general  impoverishment  of  our 
peop'e  by  the  war,  with  the  leveling  influences  consequent 
upon  it,  has  doubtless  trebled  the  floating  vote  in  the  ranks 
of  the  white  voters  of  Georgia.  If  such  estimate  be  cor- 
rect, we  are  confronted  to-day  with  the  stubborn  fact  that 
more  than  one-half  of  the  present  voting  population  of  the 
State  are  in  a  condition  to  be  controlled  uy  sinister  means, 
and  that  honest,  faithful  administration  of  public  law  is  by 
no  means  assured  i     the  future. 

Ignorance  and  poverty,  two  conditions  of  life  most  un- 
favorable to  the  existence  or  growth  of  patriotism,  would, 
in  the  case  of  the  negro,  work  a  greater  disqualification  for 
the  exercise  of  the  act  of  suffrage  than  among  the  whites 
in  similar  conditions.  Among  the  latter  there  would  exist, 
to  some  extent,  a  community  of  feeing  and  purpose,  if  not 
of  direct  interest,  with  that  of  the  intelligent  property-hold- 
ing class,  which  would  tend  naturally  to  give  their  power 
at  the  ballot-box  a  conservative  direction. 


60  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

The  ignorant  white  voter,  if  not  utterly  degraded  and 
devoid  of  patriotic  feehng,  will  generally  seek  for  light  and 
guidance  from  those  who  are  competent  to  instruct  him  in 
the  matter  of  voting.  The  ignorant  negro  vote,  on  the  other 
hand,  where  he  may  have  any  convictions  that  will  control 
his  vote,  are  generally  made  up  of  prejudice  and  race  feel- 
ing that  negatives  the  ordinary  influence  that  the  better 
class  of  white  people  have  over  him,  when  it  comes  to  the 
matter  of  voting.  This  feeling  of  mistrust  and  utter  want 
of  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  negro,  which  shuts  him  out 
from  all  correct  sources  of  information,  springs  from  the  so- 
cial distinctions  that  exist  between  the  races,  and  will 
rather  increase  than  diminish  in  the  future.  The  former 
master,  or  present  employer,  whose  judgment,  integrity 
and  disinterested  friendship  he  may  confide  in,  and  be  in- 
fluenced by,  in  all  matters  of  ordinary  interest,  ceases  to 
operate  at  once  when  the  domain  of  politics  is  reached. 
The  dirty  scalawag,  utterly  bankrupt  in  character,  whose 
moral  obliquities  may  be  so  apparent  as  to  forfeit  the  re- 
spect of  the  average  negro,  can,  by  intercourse,  in  which 
social  equality  is  recognized,  get  the  entire  confidence  of 
the  negro,  and  command  his  following. 

One  serious  hinderance  to  a  proper  control  of  the  negro 
vote,  and  directing  it  so  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  inter- 
est of  good  government,  is  the  clanish  spirit  that  prevails 
among  them.  It  has  been,  doubtless,  noticed  in  every  com- 
munity where  there  is  a  large  negro  population,  that  a  few 
clever,  well-meaning  negroes  have  honestly  sided  with  the 
Democratic  party,  and,  when  voting,  would  support  the 
candidates  of  that  part}:.  For  exercising  this  freedom  of 
opinion  in  voting,  they  have  been  uniformly  prescribed — 
placed  under  the  ban  of  the  colored  race,  and  often  become 
the  victims  of  infuriated  and  brutal  vengeance.  Having  no 
intelligence  to  guide  them,  and  so  easily  leagued  together 
by 'the  clanish  spirit  that  pervades  all  the  inferior  races,they 
yield  at  once  to  the  leadership  of  one  of  their  race,  who 
may  possess  the  vanity  or  ambition  to  assume  the  role  of 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM,  61 

leader,  and  become,  in  his  hands,  mere  puppets,  to  be 
moved  at  his  will.  This  fact  of  itself  makes  the  ballot  in 
the  hands  of  the  negro  an  instrument  far  more  potent  for 
evil  than  if  he  stood  in  an  isolated  and  independent  rela- 
tion. Their  would-be  party  leaders  are  almost  invariably 
of  a  low  order  of  character,  have  but  little  regard  for  the 
well-being  even  of  their  own  race,  and  when  not  wanting 
office  themselves,  are  in  the  market  for  any  price  that  may 
be  set  upon  the  performance  of  dirty  work.  Hence  the 
task  of  controlling  the  negro  vote  of  a  county,  or  city  by 
cliques  and  independent  candidates  that  are  obnoxious  to 
its  better  class  of  citizens,  becomes  less  expensive  and  far 
more  easily  accomplished  than  it  would  be  in  manipulating 
the  negro  vote  in  detail.  This  line  of  argument  need  not 
be  pursued  at  length,  as  the  thoughtful  reader  must  readily 
perceive,that  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  negro  vote 
nearly  one-half  the  county  and  municipal  offices  in  the 
State  of  Georgia  is  within  the  reach  of  designing  men,  who 
know  their  opportunity,  and  will  not  be  slow  in  turning  it 
to  account. 

The  power  wielded  by  the  negro  voter  in  our  elections, 
under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  that  could  possible 
surround  him,  would  be  only  negative,  as  he  is  utterly  in- 
capable of  exercising  the  right  of  suffrage  intelligibly,  as  the 
unreasoning  animal,  that  he  may  ride  along  the  high  way, 
or  follow  behind  the  plow.  He  cannot  have  the  remotest 
conception  of  any  question  of  public  policy,  or  the  issues 
between  parties,  and  just  as  incapable  of  forming  any  cor- 
rect opinion  of  the  fitness  and  qualifications  of  opposing 
candidates  for  office.  Nine-tenths  of  them,  in  returning 
from  an  election,  cannot  tell  what  office  their  candidate 
was  offering  for,  and  may  frequently  not  even  know  the 
name  of  the  man  they  supported. 

Universal  suffrage,  viewed  from  any  standpoint,  can  only 
be  regarded  as  a  positive  evil  at  the  South,  whether  meas- 
ured by  its  results  in  the  past  or  the  better  fruits  it  will 
bear  in  the  future.  Its  existence  awakens  constant  anxiety 


62  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

and  apprehension  in  the  public  mind,  weakening  its  faith 
in  the  value  of  our  poHtical  institutions,  anu  repressing  the 
energies  and  activities  of  a  people  capable  of  the  highest 
attainments  in  human  life.  It  will,  most  assuredly,  prevent 
the  influx  of  immigration  and  capital,  so  necessary  to  build 
up  our  section  by  withholding  from  these  agents  of  pro- 
gress the  guarantees  of  peaceable,  stable  government, 
which  they  demand  as  a  condition  precedent  to  their  com- 
ing. In  the  present  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  South- 
ern negroes,  it  cannot  be  of  any  benefit  to  them,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  operate  to  their  serious  detriment.  If  the 
negro,  as  well  as  the  white  race,  '••  interested  in  whole- 
some public  law,  and  its  honest,  faithfu  a  ministration, 
then,  so  far  as  he  may  hinder  it,  by  wrong  and  misguided 
exercise  of  the  right  to  vote,  he  is  to  that  extent  wielding 
a  power  to  his  own  hurt.  hile  the  ivegro,  in  his  present 
state  of  ignorance,  cannot  exercise  suffrage  so  as  to  pro- 
mote his  own  interest,  or  that  of  the  State,  he  must,  by 
arraying  himself  in  opposition  to  its  intelligent  opinion, 
divest  himself  of  the  regard  and  sympathy  of  the  white 
race,  and  increase  that  spirit  of  antagonism  that  is  so 
easily  aroused  between  races  of  such  marked  distinctions 
It  cannot  be  shown  that  universal  suffrage  in  Georgia 
where  every  department  of  the  State  Government  is  ex- 
clusively in  the  hands  of  the  '  emocratic  party,  is  any 
protection  against  an  invasion  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  negro.  The  Democratic  party  in  1  .{  1  i  ;  upon  any 
question  affecting  the  peculiar  rights  of  the  negro,  would 
not  be  influenced  by  any  motives  of  party  policy,  as  no 
action  the  negro  could  possibly  take  would  effect  a  party 
revolution,  or  impair  its  strength  in  the  State. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  adoption  of  a  limited  suffrage 
by  any  of  our  Southern  States,  would,  in  effect,  deny  the 
negro  the  right  of  representation  under  a  government  that 
recognizes  him  as  a  citizen — imposes  duties  and  burdens 
upon  him,  and  that  he  might  become  the  subject  of  class 
legislation,  and  be  deprived  of  his  civil  as  well  as  political 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  63 

rights.  Were  it  possible  to  adopt  a  course  of  legislation 
by  which  he  was  denied  any  advantage  or  boon  that  the 
white  race  enjoys,  or  that  duties  and  burdens  were  imposed 
that  the  whites  were  exempt  from,  then  there  might  be 
some  truth  in  the  allegation.  Such  legislation  would  con- 
travene the  14th  Amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution, 
and  be  declared  a  nullity  by  our  State  courts.  The 
course  of  legislation,  and  the  proceedings  in  our  State 
courts,  will  doubtless  show  as  strict  regard  for  the  rights  of 
the  negro  in  Georgia  as  that  of  any  Northern  State.  The 
white  people  of  the  South,  and  especially  the  former  slave- 
holders, are  the  negroes'  best  friends,  and  are  more  likely 
to  guard  his  interests  and  advance  his  welfare  in  the  future 
than  authors  and  supporters  of  Civil  Rights  Bills,  or  the 
blatant  apostles  of  negro  equality,  wherever  they  are  to 
be  found.  The  ruling  motives  that  actuate  the  white 
people  of  Georgia  in  the  enactment  and  in  the  administra- 
tion of  law,  where  the  negro  may  be  interested,  are  those 
which  are  prompted  by  a  sense  of  right,  justice  and  duty- 
which  will  be  quickened  and  strengthened,  if  possible,  in 
withholding  from  the  ignorant  negro  the  political  power 
to  inflict  an  injury  upon  himself  and  the  country. 

A  deep  and  thorough  conviction  rests  upon  the  South- 
ern mind  that  the  ignorant  negro  vote  cannot  be  con- 
trolled and  made  to  promote  the  interest  of  good  govern- 
ment, in  a  way  that  is  consistent  with  the  self-respect  and 
moral  proprieties  of  an  enlightened  Christian  people.  To 
acquiesce  in  universal  suffrage,  and  allow  the  blind,  un- 
reasoning mass  of  voters  to  be  controlled  by  the  worst 
element  in  society,  would  debauch  the  ballot-box,  corrupt 
the  fountains  of  political  power,  and  bring  shame  and  re- 
proach upon  the  civilization  of  the  South.  In  view  of  the 
present  state  of  political  society  at  the  South,  and  the 
influences  that  will  center  upon  the  ignorant  voter  in  the 
future,  and  control  him  in  the  exercise  of  suffrage,  it  is  but 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  will  be  an  obstacle  in  the 
path  of  progress,  and  seriously  complicate  the  problem  of 


64  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

free,  honest  and  enlightened  government  in   the  Southern 
States. 

The  people  of  Georgia  have  acted  wisely  in  postponing 
the  call  of  a  Constitutional  Convention  until  the  time 
should  arrive  when  they  could  calmly  consider  the  errors 
and  defects  of  the  Constitution  of  '68,  and  embody  into 
their  organic  law  such  provisions  as  are  necessary  to  pro- 
tect the  rights,  guard  the  interests,  and  promote  the  gen- 
eral welfare  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  her  people. 
The  caUing  of  this  Convention,  the  election  of  suitable  rep- 
resentative men,  and  the  momentous  questions  that  must 
be  considered  and  acted  upon  by  this  body,  will  awaken  an 
interest  in  the  minds  of  the  people  that  will  invest  the 
assemblage  with  a  gravity  and  importance  rarely  surpassed 
in  the  history  of  our  State.  This  body,  representing  the 
intelligence,  the  true  worth,  and  real  manhood  of  Georgia, 
would  feel  the  grave  responsibilities  resting  upon  it,  and 
begin  a  ground  work  in  excavating  beneath  the  surface 
and  examining  carefully  the  foundations  upon  which  must 
rest  the  solid  framework  of  social  order  and  good  govern- 
ment in  the  future. 

In  treating  this  divsion  of  the  subject,  we  have  brought 
under  review  some  of  the  more  prominent  evils  of  univer- 
sal suffrage  at  the  South  on  a  line  of  argument  that  we 
desired  to  be  suggestive,  rather  than  any  effort  at  elabor- 
ation. Nor  would  the  prescribed  hmits  of  this  paper  admit 
of  an  extended  discussion  of  the  theories  of  representative 
free  government,  but  as  the  Federal  Congress  has  estab- 
lished universal  suffrage,  and  declared  it  to  be  the  policy 
that  shall  govern  the  elective  feature  in  the  American 
system  of  government,  some  examination  of  the  principles 
of  repubhcau  government  in  its  representative  form,  as 
well  as  the  facts  presented  in  the  condition  of  Southern 
population,  becomes  necessary  in  reaching  correct  con- 
clusions upon  the  question  of  suffrage  in  the  Southern 
States. 

The  theory  upon  which  democratic  institutions  rest,  is  that 
the  people  are  capable  of  self-government — that  the  masses 


THE    NEGRO   PROBLEM. 


e§ 


^re  not  only  sufficiently  intelligent  to  comprehend  the  form 
and  nature  of  free  government,  to  understand  the  principles 
which  must  pervade  it  and  are  necessary  to  give  life, 
strength  and  harmonious  action  to  all  its  operations,  but 
some  degree  of  that  higher  order  of  intelligence  which 
comes  not  by  merely  instructing  the  intellect,  but  the 
heart  and  moral  nature  of  man,  that  will  enable  him  to  im- 
pose proper  restraints  upon  his  willful  nature,  to  respect 
the  rights  of  others,  to  obey  law,  and  fulfill  the  measure 
of  a  just  and  upright  citizen. 

In  portraying  this  brief  outline  of  the  qualifications  for 
citizenship  under  a  free  government,  we  are  drawing  no 
ideal  picture,  as  some  of  those  contained  in  "  Plato's  Re- 
public," but  simply  stating  the  individual  requirement 
necessary  to  form  that  condition  of  society  that  wiU  main- 
tain and  perpetuate  free  institutions,  and  not  make  them 
the  creature  of  chance  and  circumstance. 

The  elective  principle,  which  gives  expression  at  the 
ballot-box  to  the  popular  will,  in  the  method  and  direction 
it  may  be  desired,  whether  it  is  to  form  a  constitution,  to 
enact  laws,  or  for  the  purposes  of  civi  administration, 
constitutes  the  main  and  vital  element  in  all  free  govern- 
ments. The  proper  regulation  of  this  principle — the  safe- 
guards and  restraints  thrown  around  it  to  secure  upon  the 
one  hand  the  free  and  untrammelled  exercise  of  the  right 
to  vote,  and  upon  the  other  hand  to  so  guard  it  that  those 
entrusted  with  the  franchise  shall  not  wield  it  to  the  det- 
riment of  the  State,  is  a  subject  that  has  occupied  much 
of  the  attention  of  the  law-giver,  and  the  success  attained 
may,  to  a  certain  degree,  be  considered  a  standard  to 
measure  the  degree  of  rational  liberty  any  people  enjoy. 
This  elective  principle  is,  as  it  were,  the  conduit  along 
which  is  conveyed  the  embodied  will  of  the  people  to 
every  department  of  the  government ;  giving  life  and 
vigor  when  wisely  directed,  but  when  from  any  cause  it  is 
perverted  from  the  true  and  legitimate  objects  of  govern- 
ment, it  brings  confusion,  disorder,  misrule,  and,  ultimately, 

5 


66  THE   NEGRO   PROBLEM. 

the  wreck  of  human  Hberties.  A  principle  so  important, 
and  so  essential  in  fixing  the  character,  as  well  as  maintain- 
ing the  very  existence  of  free  government  itself,  should  be 
well  defined  and  wisely  regulated  by  law,  and  sacredly  re- 
garded by  a  people  as  a  muniment  of  their  freedom.  Under 
the  American  system  of  government,  from  its  inception 
down  to  the  date  of  the  late  constitutional  amendments,  the 
question  of  suffrage  was  conceded  to,  and  controlled  by,  the 
States  as  one  belonging  exclusively  to  them. 

The  subversion  of  this  right  of  the  States  to  control  the 
question  of  suffrage,  though  it  was  done  under  semblance 
of  regular  constitutional  method,  was  a  clear  invasion  of 
the  rights  of  the  States — a  bare  usurpation — (or,  call  it  by 
what  name  we  may)  the  results  of  which  cannot  at  present 
be  seen,  or  properly  estimated.  In  its  ultimate  consequen- 
ces, if  not  in  its  present  products,  will  be  seen  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  fond  dream  and  fell  purpose  of  those  men  at  the 
North,  who,  discarding  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  and 
despising  its  institutions,  its  duties,  its  obligations  and  its 
powers,  devoted  themselves  to  the  radical  overthrow  of  all, 
without  reference  to  consequences  or  crimes. 

In  the  report  of  the  Abolition  Society  of  Boston  for  the 
year  1852,  it  is  said  ;  "  The  abolition  of  slavery  presup- 
poses a  revolution.  For  it  will  radically  overthrow  and 
reconstruct  the  institutions  of  the  nation.  It  may  be  a 
revolution  fought  out  on  Marston  Moor  or  Bunker  yHill, 
or  its  victories  may  be  won  on  logomachic  fields  of  parlia- 
mentary debate,  and  decided  by  aye  and  no,  and  not^by 
bayonet  and  sword.  *****  g^j. 

come  in  what  shape  it  may,  it  will  be  a  revolution,"  (,,  It 
has  not  been  twenty-five  years  since  this  utterance  was 
made.  It  was  regarded  at  the  time  by  the  great ^mass  of 
the  American  people  as  the  vagaries  of  distemperedj,minds 
the  dream  of  madmen,  that  had  no  soundness  of  reason 
in  it — as  something  beyond  the  range  of  probable.revents. 

What  interpretation  can  be  given  to-day  to  the  state  of 
things  that  the   people   of  this   country   find  .themselves 


THE   NEGRO   PROBLEM. 


67 


brought  face  to  face  with  ?  What,  we  may  ask,  can  be  the 
state  of  forty-five  millions  of  people  twenty  days  after  a 
Presidential  election,  (the  present  writing,)  where  the  ac- 
tual resuh  was  known  to  all  the  people  in  less  than  three 
days  after  it  occurred,  that  there  should  be  such  con- 
fusion—limning to  and  fro  of  prominent  men  of  both 
parties  to  the  scene  of  trouble— the  hurrying  of  armed 
soldiery  into  peaceful  States,  upon  no  ground  that  can  be 
justified  by  constitutional  authority,  or  that  of  law,  prece- 
dent or  reason  ?  If  the  public  press  expresses  the  popular 
feehng,  we  are  justified  in  saying  that  there  is  at  this  day, 
throughout  the  United  States,  (excepting  the  authors  of  all 
this  mischief)  a  sentiment  of  public  danger,  a  sen^e  of  in- 
security, a  dread  of  the  future,  a  gloomy  and  sorrowful 
retrospect  of  the  past,  a  craving  desire  for  the  replacing  of 
ancient  landmarks,  that  betoken  something  more  than  an 
apprehension  that  their  institutions  have  been  radically 
overthrown,  and  that  reconstruction  does  not  promise  the 
ancient  order,  tranquility  and  concord.  It  cannot  be  de- 
nied by  any  candid,  right-thinking  man,  who  has  read  the 
history  of  current  events  for  the  last  ten  years,  and  is 
capable  of  analyzing  them,  that  the  reconstruction  meas- 
ures of  the  Republican  Congress,  and  the  constitutional 
amendments  as  an  inseperable  adjunct,  have  brought  about 
a  complete  political  revolution  in  our  country— a  revolu- 
tion as  manifest  in  effect,  if  not  so  marked  in  its  consequen- 
ces, as  that  which  resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Stuarts 
in  England,  the  French  revolution  of  1789,  or  that  of  the 
English  colonies  in  America  in  1776. 

The  late  war  between  the  sections  did  not  in  itself  ac- 
complish it,  nor  did  the  overthrow  of  slavery  at  the  South 
necessarily  produce  it.  If  the  policy  of  pacification  brought 
forward  by  President  Johnson  had  been  carried  out,  not- 
withstanding it  required  a  surrender  of  the  institution  of 
slavery,  which  would  have,  in  any  event,  produced  a  great 
shock  to  the  industrial  system  of  the  South,  yet  |the  po- 
litical  institutions    of  the   country  would  have  remained 


88  trie   NEGRO   PROBLEM. 

intact,  and  as  soon  as  the  former  constitutional  relations 
could  have  been  adjusted,  there  would  have  been,  in  fact, 
and  ,in  theory,  a  constitutional  restoration,  without  a 
subversion  and  reconstruction  of  the  American  system  of 
government.  The  late  constitutional  amendments,  ac- 
cording to  the  construction  and  practice  of  the  Radical 
party,  changed  the  relation  of  the  citizen  to  the  State  and 
the  Union,  in  providing  for  an  oversight  of  State  legislation, 
in  all  that  concerns  life,  liberty,  privilege  and  protection, 
under  the  law.  These  amendments  altered  the  basis  of 
Congressional  representation,  and  made  it  dependent  upon 
suffrage,  instead  of  population,  for  the  exercise  of  choice 
on  the  part  of  any  State,  between  universal  and  restricted 
suffrage.  Under  authority  of  the  amendments,  Congress 
has  passed  force  bills,  civil  rights  bills,  kuklux  bills,  elec- 
tion supervising  bills,  (designed  to  debauch,  instead  of 
protecting  the  purity  of  the  ballot-box,)  and  under  the 
authority  of  "  appropriate  legislation,"  may  do  whatever 
else  the  SociaHst,Red  Republican,  or  Communist,  or  Infidel, 
or  politico-religionist  may  suggest. 

A  brief  examination  of  some  of  the  more  prominent 
features  of  the  reconstruction  measures  of  Congress,  and 
the  circumstances  that  attended  their  execution — particu- 
larly that  of  imposing  negro  suffrage  upon  the  South,  with 
the  view  of  showing  the  animus  and  purpose  of  the  domi- 
nant party  of  the  North  in  bringing  it  forward,  would  not 
be  out  of  place  at  this  time.  The  Southern  States,  by  the 
terms  imposed  in  the  reconstruction  measures  of  Congress, 
were  placed  in  an  attitude  of  forced  acquiescence  to  a  plan 
of  settlement  that  they  saw  was  fraught  with  unmixed  evil, 
and  which  they  must  accept,  as  a  dreaded  alternative  of 
defiance  and  resistance  to  the  Federal  power.  These 
proposed  amendments  were  not  spurned.  They  were 
treated  with  no  contempt.  There  was  no  expression  of 
disdain.  They  were  proposed,  or  ought  to  have  been 
proposed,  to  the  States,  for  their  free  dehberation  and  for 
the  exercise  of  candid  judgment.      If  they  were  States  in 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  69 

the  Union,  and  had  the  right  to  pass  upon  the  amend- 
ments, they  certainly  were  entitled  to  the  choice  of  accept- 
ing or  rejecting  them.  Any  menace  or  coercion  on  the 
part  of  Congress  was  itself  a  violation  of  the  Constitution. 
The  Southern  State  legislatures  that  acted  upon  these 
amendments,  were  acting  for  themselves,  for  their  poster- 
ity, and  also  for  the  other  States  of  the  Union.  They 
would  have  dishonored  themselves,  and  been  recreant  to 
their  trust,  if  they  had  consented  to  them  otherwise  than 
upon  the  dictate  of  an  honest  and  conscientious  judge' 
ment. 

If  we  revert  to  the  free-soil  movement  at  the  North,  be- 
fore the  war,  it  can  be  clearly  shown  that  it  was  not  its 
purpose  to  accomplish  anything  more  than  the  liberation 
of  the  slave  from  the  rule  of  the  master.  The  idea  that 
the  negro  was  "a  man  and  a  brother,"  with  any  real 
claims  to  equality  and  fraternity,  had  its  lodgement  only 
in  the  brain  of  a  few  ranting  fanatics  of  the  sham-philan- 
thropic class,  while  the  great  mass  of  those  who  favored 
an  emancipation  policy  regarded  him  as  inferior,  by  nature. 
to  the  white  race,  and  unfitted,  under  favorable  circum- 
stances, for  the  grave  responsibilities  of  citizenship.  This 
view  was  held  by  Lincoln,  Greeley,  Morton,  Trumbull, 
Fessenden,  and  nearly  all  the  prominent  leaders  of  the 
Republican  party,  excepting  Sumner,  Seward,  and,  per- 
haps, Chase.  Just  before,  and  at  the  close  of  the  late  war, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  in  his  exposition  at  the  Cooper  Institute, 
just  before  his  inauguration,  simply  advocated  the  free-soil 
doctrine  excluding  slavery  from  the  territories,  and  if  he 
had  any  advanced  ideas  towards  a  recognition  of  the  "  man 
and  brother  "  theory,  afterwards,  it  was  not  known  down 
South. 

The  New  York  Tribune,  in  the  terse  and  emphatic  lan- 
guage of  Greeley,  in  noticing  the  movements  of  the  col- 
ored people  of  New  York  to  secure  equal  suffrage,  a  short 
while  before  the  war,  thus  gives  utterance  to  his  views  of 


70  THE    NEGRO   PROBLEM. 

their  claims  and  their  condition:  "One  negro,  on  a  farm 
which  he  has  cleared  or  bought,  patiently  hewing  out  a 
modest,  toilsome  independence,  is  worth  more  to  the  cause 
of  equal  suffrage  than  three  in  an  Ethiopian  (or  any  other) 
Convention,  clamoring  against  white  oppression  with  all 
the  fire  of  a  Spartacus.  They  will  never  win  it  as  white 
men's  barbers,  waiters,  ostlers  and  bootblacks ;  that  is  to 
say,  the  tardy  and  ungracious  concession  of  the  right  of 
suffrage,  which  they  may  ultimately  wrench  from  a  reluct- 
ant community,  will  leave  them  still  the  political  as  well 
as  social  inferiors  of  the  whites — excluded  from  all  honor- 
able office,  and  admitted  to  white  men's  tables  only  as 
waiters,  and  plate-washers — unless  they  shall,  meantime, 
have  wrought  out,  through  toil,  privation  and  suffering, 
an  intellectual  and  essential  enfranchisement," 

Senator  Morton,  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Re- 
publican party  in  Congress  for  the  last  eight  years,  and 
during  that  time  among  the  foremost  in  his  advocacy  of  all 
measures  of  resentment  and  oppression  against  the 
white  people  of  the  South,  made  a  speech  at  Indianapolis, 
in  1865,  just  before  entering  upon  his  Senatorial  term,  in 
which  he  opposed  the  policy  of  conferring  the  elective 
franchise  upon  the  colored  race  at  the  South,  and  favored 
(to  use  his  own  language)  "the  postponement  of  their  po- 
litical rights  for  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  at  which 
time,"  he  argued,  "the  Southern  States  would  have  been 
so  completely  filled  with  immigration  from  the  North  and 
Europe,  that  the  negroes  would  be  in  a  permanent  minor- 
ity." He  further  argued  in  his  speech,  at  great  length,  to 
show  the  extreme  hazard  that  the  Southern  States  would 
be  subjected  to,  with  the  negro  as  a  part  of  their  voting 
populatio|%^ 

If  Northern  men,  who  had  entered  with  earnestness 
and  zeal,  into  the  fierce  political  contest  that  raged  with  un- 
abated fury  for  ten  years  preceding  emancipation,  and  had 
their  sympathy  and  regard  for  the  negro,  strengthened 
by  a  quasi  alliance  during  the  war,  should  afterwards  view 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  71 

with  misgivings  and  alarm,  the  expediency  of  confering  po- 
htical  rights  upon  the  colored  race,  what,  we  may  ask, 
would  be  the  feelings  of  Southern  men,  who  must  bear 
the  shock  and  reap  the  bitter  fruits  of  such  a  measure  ? 

We  have  already  stated  the  unmistakable  purpose  of  the 
Radical  party,  in  forcing  negro  suffrage  upon  the  South,  to 
be  two-fold — that  of  gratifying  a  spirit  of  revenge,  and  the 
bringing  in  the  negro  as  a  political  ally  in  the  future. 

The  disagreement  between  President  Johnson  and  the 
Radical  majority  of  the  39th  Congress,  upon  the  policy  of 
reconstruction,  culminated  in  the  impeachment  of  the 
former,  and  is  memorable  for  being  the  most  insane  and 
bitter  partisan  attempt  ever  made  by  one  department  of 
the  Federal  Government  to  destroy  a  co-ordinate  branch. 
This  Radical  Congress,  foiled  in  its  attempt  to  drag  down 
and  degrade  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  Nation,  whose 
only  crime  was  that  of  differing  with  it  upon  the  proper 
plan,  and  the  authority  for  reconstruction,  returned  with 
increased  venom  to  the  task  of  insulting  and  degrading  a 
prostrate  and  defenceless  people.  It  was  not  seriously 
claimed  by  Congress  in  bringing  forward  these  measures, 
with  the  odious  suffrage  feature,  that  the  Southern  negro 
was,  in  any  sense,  fit  for  its  exercise,  or  that  it  was  needed 
to  protect  and  preserve  his  newly  acquired  freedom.  The 
main  point  made  and  urged  in  the  advocacy  of  the  Con- 
gressional plan  of  reconstruction,  was  that  the  Southern 
whites  were  disloyal  to  the  Constitution,  and  still  rebel- 
lious against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
that  Republican  Governments  in  the  late  seceded  States 
could  not  be  organized  and  guaranteed  by  Congress,  with 
their  people  in  such  an  attitude  to  the  National  Govern- 
ment. It  could  not  be  resonably  asserted  that  the  South- 
ern negro  had  manifested  any  spirit  of  loyalty,  much  less 
acts  of  loyalty  to  the  United  States  Government,  only  in 
a  negative  sense.  Nine-tenths  of  the  colored  population 
had  remained  true  to  their  owners  during  the  whole  period 
of  the  war — giving  "aid  and  comfort"  to  the  Confederate 


72  THE  NEGRO   PROBLEM. 

cause,  by  remaining  faithfully  at  work,  and  producing  food 
supplies  for  its  armies  as  well  as  the  people. 

The  negroes  that  were  enlisted  in  the  Federal  army 
were  generally  decoyed  from  their  masters,  induced  to 
leave  under  misrepresentations,  or,  falling  within  the  Fed- 
eral lines,  were  taken  up  and  forced  into  ranks,  where  they 
exhibited  but  little  stomach  for  the  fight,  especially  when 
their  courage  was  not  given  additional  tension  by  the 
proximity  of  bayonets  in  the  rear.  The  nearest  approach  to 
loyalty  that  the  colored  race  made,  and  which,  doubtless, 
convinced  the  Radical  party  of  his  superserviceable  loyalty, 
was  in  walking  up  to  "de  buro"  and  drawing  suppHes, 
after  that  beneficent  institution  had  spread  its  pavilion  over 
the  land,  encouraging  the  negro  to  abandon  the  farm, 
where  he  might  earn  an  honest  living,  to  take  shelter  under 
its  patronizing  folds. 

The  Southern  situation  at  this  time,  with  the  intelligent 
ruHng  classes  disloyal,  as  the  radicals  alleged,  and  the  ne- 
groes known  to  be  too  ignorant  and  obtuse  to  have  any' 
ideas  of  government,  would  seem  to  place  a  dilemma  be- 
fore Congress  in  its  work  of  guaranteeing  republican  State 
governments  at  the  South,  that  would  vex  state-craft  of  no 
mean  order.  In  such  a  case,  with  these  facts  clearly  de- 
veloped, English  statesmen,  if  called  to  the  task,  would 
hare  doubtless  managed  it  by  keeping  the  late  seceded 
States  under  provisional  governments,  until  time,  social 
intercourse,  business  relations,  and  other  moral  influences 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  alienated  sections,  could  have 
brought  in  an  era  of  good  feeling,  which,  in  effect,  would 
have  re-adjusted  the  disturbed  relations  (civil  and  political) 
as  by  natural  processes.  But  it  was  not  in  keeping  with 
Radical  politics,  which  drew  its  inspirations,  and  received 
its  subsequent  teachings,  from  sources  that  were  poisoned 
with  sectional  hate,  to  raise  itself  to  the  level  of  duty  and 
statesmanship,  and  deal  with  the  question  before  it  in  a 
spirit  of  libj^ral  and  enlightened  patriotism. 

Machiavelli,  the  famous  Florentine  Secretary,  has  ever 


THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM.  73 

been  regarded  with  detestation,  as  the  author  and  teacher 
of  an  infamous  line  of  policy.  ( called,  from  him,  Machia- 
velHsm,)  intended  to  enable  despotism  to  perpetuate  its 
existence  by  fraud  and  violence.      His  biographer  says  of 
him:   "He  sought  the  cure  of  Italy ;  yet  her  state  ap- 
peared to  him  so  desperate  that  he  was  bold  enough  to 
prescribe  poison."     If  he  had  lived  to  witness  that  period 
in  American  history  in  which  the  body  politic  took  on  that 
foul  disease — radicalism — he   would  doubtless  have  been 
gratified  at  finding  so  many  disciples  of  his  school,  ready 
to  administer  the  fatal  draught  that  kills  the  State,  in  order 
to  cure  her  ills.     To  characterize  their  work  in  remodehng 
Southern  State  governments  as  Machiavellian,  would  be 
scarcely  doing  justice  to  the  great  master  of  political  in- 
trigue of  the  15th  century,  for,  where  he  advocated  the  use 
of  means  the  most  despicable  and  unwarrantable,  it  was 
supposed  to  serve,  in  the  end,  the  good  of  the  State,  while 
his  imitators  in  America  were  no  less  scrupulous  in  the 
employment  of  means  to  accomplish,  not  the  good  of  the 
State,   but  to  preserve  the  rule  of  the  most   venal    and 
wicked  party  faction  that  has  figured  in  the  history  of  free 
governments.     The  language  of  the  14th  Amendment  to 
the  Federal  Constitution,  conferring  citizenship  upon  the 
negro,  and  providing  for  a  new  apportionment   of  repre- 
sentatives upon  the  basis  of  enlarged,  or,  more  properly, 
universal  citizenship,  and  adopted  but  a  short  time  before 
that  of  the  15th  Amendment,  and  in  contemplation  of  the 
latter  following  immediately  upon   it,    provides:    "That 
when  the  right  to  vote  at  any  election  for  the  choice  of 
Electors  for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the   United 
States,  Representatives  in  Congress,  the  Executive  and  Ju- 
dicial officers  of  a  State,  or  the  members  of  the  Legisla- 
ture thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male   members  of 
such  State,  being  twenty- one  years,  and  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  are  in  any  way  abridged,  except  for  parti- 
cipation in  rebellion,  or  other  crime,  the  basis  of  represen- 
tation therein  shall  be  reduced  in  the  proportion  which  the 


74  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

number  of  such  male  citizens  shall  bear  to  the  whole  num- 
ber of  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of  age  in  such 
State."  Taking  the  scope  and  meaning  of  the  14th  and 
15th  Amendments  together,  it  is  no  unwarrantable  as- 
sumption in  saying  that  the  framers  of  those  amendments 
had  in  contemplation  the  time  when  universal  suffrage 
would  become  such  a  grievance  at  the  South,  and  its  evils 
so  manifest,  that  its  people  would  be  compelled  to  elim- 
inate it  from  their  State  Constitutions,  as  the  only  alterna- 
tive of  corrupt  rule,  social  disorder,  and  utter  ruin.  It 
was  evidently  the  purpose  of  the  Radical  party,  in  its 
policy  of  reconstruction,  with  bayonet  ruie,  and  with  the 
odious  feature  of  negro  suffrage  fastened  upon  the  South 
by  constitutional  rivet,  to  hold  those  States  permanently 
under  their  party  rule.  And  in  case  any  State  should  as 
a  matter  of  choice,  and  with  a  view  of  promoting  the  wel- 
fare of  her  people,  adopt  limited  suffrage,  then  her  repre- 
sentation in  Congress  should  be  curtailed,  and  in  either 
event  the  South  would  be  shorn  of  its  strenth  in  the 
Union,  and  made  to  feel  the  humiliation  that  her  enemies 
had  in  store  for  her. 

It  was  but  little  concern  to  these  malignants,  what 
might  be  the  resulting  mischief  in  the  future  unfolding  of 
the  race  problem,  (after  compHcating  it  by  introducing  all 
the  devices  that  would  antagonize  and  alienate  the  races,) 
whether  the  negro,  banded  together  in  solid  party  phalanx 
on  the  color  line,  would  enter  upon  a  contest  for  supre- 
macy, incurring  all  the  hazard  that  such  a  course  would 
bring  upon  him,  or,  abandoning  race  organization,  would 
become  a  great  mass  of  floating  voters  to  be  controlled  by 
the  worst  elements  in  the  white  race. 

The  altered  basis  of  representation  in  Congress,  pro- 
vided for  in  the  2nd  clause  of  the  14th  Amendment,  in  case 
any  State  should  adopt  limited  suffrage,  is  a  piece  of  polit- 
ical legerdemain,  the  maladroitness  of  which  must  be  ap- 
parent even  to  minds  that  are  not  trained  to  legal  analysis. 
This  clause  of  the  14th  Amendment,  while  it  does  not  di- 


THE  NEGRO   PROBLEM.  75 

rectly  prohibit  or  deny  to  the  States  the  right  to  limit  or 
regulate,  in  any  way,  the  question  of  suffrage,  yet  it  holds 
over  the  States  a  menace  for  so  doing — a  kind  of  moral  co- 
ercion. And  the  very  act  of  enforcing  the  provision  con- 
tained in  the  2nd  clause  of  this  Amendment,  by  curtailing 
the  representation  of  any  State,  if  not  an  actual  penalty,  is 
certainly  in  the  nature  of  a.  penalty,  and  the  whole  thing 
contrary  to  the  genius  that  pervades,  and  the  tradition  and 
practice  that  has  obtained  in  all^^confederated  systems  of 
free  government.  Constitutions  and  States  are  non-existent 
under  such  conditions.  A  Congress  composed  of  members, 
where  some  of  the  States  had  a  full  representation,  upon 
the  basis  of  population  in  such  States,  and  others  with  a 
curtailed  representation,  fixed  upon  a  mixed  basis  of  suf- 
frage and  population,  would  be  gross  inequality,  and  pre- 
sent a  rare  anomaly  in  a  legislative  body,  representing  the 
people  in  fact  and  in  theory,  requiring,  as  an  essential  fea- 
ture, a  uniform  basis  of  representation. 

We  have  not  seen  any  exposition  or  enlarged  discussion  of 
the  clauses  contained  in  the  I4th  amendment.  We  do  not 
think  the  legal  mind  of  the  country  regards  the  question 
of  suffrage  as  settled  by  this  amendment.  Mr.  Chas.  A. 
Dana,  of  the  New  York  Sun,  who  is  regarded  as  an  inde- 
pendent thinker,  a  profound  logician,  and  one  of  the  best 
informed  and  most  brilliant  political  writers  of  the  age,  has 
very  recently  expressed  the  opinion*  in  an  editorial,  that 
the  right  to  control  the  question  of  suffrage  still  belongs 
to  the  States.  Several  of  the  Northern  States,  we  think, 
still  retain  the  provision  for  abridged  suffrage  in  their 
Constitutions. 

We  propose  the  query :  Will  the  second  clause  of  the 
14th  Amendment  be  enforced  in  Congress,  in  the  event 
any  Southern  State  should  adopt  hmited  suffrage? 

But,  conceding  the  point  that  this  clause  of  the  14th 
Amendment  will  be  enforced,  it  remains  to  consider  the 
expediency  of  adopting  restricted  suffrage  as  the  only 
measure  of  relief  from  the  evils  of  universal  suffrage,  that 


76  THE    NEGBIO    PROBLEM. 

is  practicable  and  within  the  reach  of  the  people  of  Geor- 
gia. The  question  of  expediency,  in  the  opinion  of  l^ie 
writer,  is  governed  by  considerations  of  tlwee  dis- 
tinct classes  :  1st.  The  manner  it  will  be  received  at  the 
North,  and  the  resulting  influence  it  would  have  upon 
Federal  politics.  2d.  The  effect  upon  those  excluded  by  it 
from  the  elective  privilege.  3d.  The  effect  it  would  have 
upon  Georgia  and  other  Southern  States  that  might  adopt 
it,  in  diminishing  their  representation  in  Congress,  "as  pro- 
vided in  the  14th  Amendment. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  argue  these  several  considera- 
tions at  length,  but  simply  state  propositions,  the  logical 
sequence  of  which,  we  hope,  can  be  readily  drawn  with- 
out effort  on  the  part  of  the  reader.  The  first  considera- 
tion stated  as  bearing  upon  the  question  of  expediency, 
receives  its  significance,  not  from  any  intrinsic  worth  or 
force,  but  from  the  rather  delicate  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  sections — a  proneness  to  misconception  at  the 
North  of  any  action  by  the  South  upon  measures  con- 
nected with  the  adjustment  of  our  late  pohtical  troubles, 
and  a  sensitiveness  of  our  Southern  people  to  being 
charged  with  a  want  of  fidelity  to  the  terms  acquiesced  in 
as  a  a  basis  of  settlement.  While  we  are  free  to  admit  it 
to  be  the  part  of  duty  and  patriotism,  incumbent  upon  every 
Southern  man,  to  carefully  avoid  giving  any  occasion  of 
offense  to  what  may  be  called  Northern  sentiment  upon  all 
questions — especially  those  that  do  not  involve  a  vital  prin- 
ciple— so  that  the  issues  of  the  late  war,  so  far  as  the 
Southern  people  may  be  concerned,  may  pass  out  of  the 
range  of  American  politics,  yet  duty  and  manhood  forbid 
the  tame  acquiescence  in  policies  where  their  practical  re- 
cognition must  serve  as  a  dead  weight  upon  the  energies 
of  the  people,  and  an  obstruction  to  their  progress. 

The  Northern  people  can  form  no  just  conception  of  the 
negro  problem  in  the  South,  in  any  of  its  phases,  from 
what  is  presented  in  the  case  of  the  negro  in  their  own 
section  as  proper  data  and  criterion  to  form  opinion  and 


THE  NEGRO   PROBLEM.  Il 

Conclusions  upon.  In  those  States  ai^  the  North  having 
the  largest  negro  population,  tor  instance,  Pennsylvania 
and  Ohio,  (numbering  about  30,000  in  each  of  these 
States,)  compared  to  the  white  population  as  to  numbers, 
would  be  in  the  ratio  of  about  one  to  forty — scarcely  re- 
garded as  forming  one  of  the  constituent  elements  that 
make  up  the  political  society  of  a  State.  In  these  States 
the  small  negro  population  is  scattered  over  large  areas, 
and  so  isolated  in  relation  as  to  render  it  difficult  and  im- 
practicable to  agitate  any  question  among  themselves,  or 
co-operate  upon  any  measure  having  distinctly  marked 
race  features.  The  negroes  there  are  at  least  partially  ed- 
ucated, and  being  too  isolated  for  race  agitiation  in  any 
respect,  are  brought  under  the  more  direct  influence  of  the 
white  people,  and  are  controlled  in  the  matter  of  voting 
just  as  any  other  class  in  a  similar  condition.  The  right 
of  representation  in  Northern  States  legislatures  is  never 
claimed  by  the  negro  there,  or  if  such  was  asserted,  it 
would  be  treated  with  contempt,  even  by  those  who  have 
so  loudly  proclaimed  their  interest  in  the  cause  of  negro 
equality  at  the  South. 

Outside  of  a  few  well-informed  politicians  and  others 
who  have  traveled  South,  and  sought  sources  of  correct 
information,  the  Southern  negro  question  is  viewed  at  the 
North  as  an  abstraction,  in  which  is  detached  from  all 
their  conception  those  facts  and  circumstances  that  invest 
it  with  peculiar  hazard  and  interest  to  the  Southern  white 
people.  What  they  have  seen  and  know  of  the  negro 
among  them,  is  so  widely  differing  in  the  most  important  re- 
spects from  the  Southern  negro,  that  it  really  unfits  them 
to  reach  sensible  conclusions  at  all.  Nor  can  we  expect 
the  Northern  mind  to  be  any  better  informed  upon  South- 
ern affairs,  in  the  main,  in  the  near  future,  however  desir- 
able it  may  be  to  us  to  have  them  view  our  poHtical  and 
S9cial  life  in  the  light  of  calm,  dispassionate  truth.  Reason, 
and  the  instincts  of  self-preservation,  teach  us  that  it  will 
not  do  to  subordinate  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  State 


7S  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

to  what  might  be  considered  the  good  will  of  disinterested 
people,  or  to  the  fear  of  inviting  adverse  criticism,  how- 
ever bitter  and  relentless  it  may  be.  If  we  should  allow  the 
basis  of  suffrage  to  remain  unaltered  for  the  next  ten  years, 
and,  in  the  meantime,  it  should  work  to  the  disadvantage 
and  hindrance  of  good  government,  as  it  doubtless  will  in 
the  way  and  manner  already  indicated,  there  will  be  no 
source  from  whence  we  would  receive  more  detraction  for 
the  folly  of  tolerating  it  than  that  which  would  be  poured 
upon  us  through  the  Northern  press. 

The  regulation  of  suffrage  in  any  way  that  does  not 
contravene  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  is 
not  only  a  clear  question  of  State  right  and  authority,  but 
one  of  peculiar  policy  and  interest,  that  must  be  shaped 
and  controlled  in  accordance  with  proper  conceptions  of 
the  latter,  irrespective  of  outside  opinion. 

It  would  certainly  seem  that  the  rational,  considerate 
mind  of  the  North,  viewing  the  subject  of  negro  politics 
at  the  South  for  the  last  ten  years,  in  its  ruinous  acts,  and 
disgusting  details,  and  especially  in  view  of  the  present  po- 
litical embroglio  growing  out  of  the  Presidential  race,  for 
which  universal  suffrage  must  be  regarded,  by  every  candid 
mind  in  the  country,  as  the  sole  cause — the  '-'■causa  causus*' 
— would  now  pause,  reflect,  and  in  the  experience  of 
better  reason,  demand  a  removal  of  this  dangerous,  dis- 
turbing element  from  the  theatre  of  American  politics, 
that  is  hurryingf  us  down  the  broad  and  beaten  road  to 
political  perdition. 

Dr.  Redfield,  the  correspondent  of  the  Cincinnati  Com- 
mercial, who  was  in  South  Carolina  during  the  late  cam- 
paign, and  saw  the  "true  inwardness"  of  radical  politics 
there,  and  in  his  utter  disgust,  as  an  honest  man,  with  the 
ignorant,  weak  and  lawless  character  of  the  negro,  and 
the  manner  in  which  he  has  been  manipulated  there,  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  Northern  sentiment  will  demand 
the  removal  of  the  ballot  from  the  hands  of  the  negro  in  ad- 
vance of  any  such  movement  at  the  South.     If  the  '*Com- 


THE  NEGRO   PROBLEM.  79 

nterciaV  correspondent  had  his  mind's  eye  on  the  Radical 
party,  as  the  one  Hkely  to  take  the  initiative  in  the  move- 
ment indicated,  he  is  very  probably  mistaken.  It  is  not 
the  party  to  reform  abuses,  to  go  back  upon  its  own  record 
and  correct  the  evils  that  it  has  been  wholly  instrumental 
in  inflicting  upon  the  country.  But,  upon  the  theory 
that  evils  sometimes  work  their  own  cure,  we  may  reason- 
ably expect,  after  the  present  troubles  have  passed,  that 
there  will  be  a  new  awakening  at  the  North  to  a  sense  of 
the  danger  that  environs  their  institutions,  and  that  there 
will  be  a  re-action,  deep,  earnest  and  permanent,  against 
the  disintegrating  and  destructive  influences  that  are  surely 
undermining  the  foundations  of  the  American  govern- 
ment. 

The  people  of  Georgia  have  earnestly  desired  a  change 
in  the  Administration  of  the  Federal  Government,  from 
the  hands  of  a  party  which  has  pursued  a  course  of  insult 
and  oppression  towirds  them,  to  one  more  just  and  liberal, 
and  one  that  would  allow  them  to  pursue  a  career  of  self- 
development,  without  arbitrary  interference.  And  what- 
ever the  result  may  be  in  the  pending  contest,  it  should 
not  hold  in  abeyance  any  question  of  State  policy  that 
needs  revision  and  incorporation  into  our  organic  law. 

The  next  consideration  to  be  noticed  as  entering  into 
the  question  of  expediency,  in  adopting  abridged  suffrage 
in  Georgia,  is  that  of  the  rights  of  those  persons  who 
would  be  excluded  from  the  elective  franchise,  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  would  be  received  by  the  disfranchised 
class.  A  discussion  here  of  the  abstract  right  of  every 
citizen  under  a  free  government  to  be  clothed  with  the 
elective  franchise — based,  as  such  claims  are,  upon  the 
natural  rights  of  man — would  require  greater  compass 
than  the  limits  of  this  paper  would  admit.  There  is  no 
subject,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  range  of  human  inquiry 
'that  has  engaged  so  much  speculative  thought,  and  is  so 
much  obscured  by  metaphysical  reasoning  as  that  of  the 
natural  rights  of  man.     Blackstone  defines  civil  liberty  to 


80  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

be,  "That  of  a  member  of  society,  and  is  no  other  thail 
natural  liberty,  so  far  restrained  by  human  laws,  ( and  no 
farther),  as  is  necessary  and  expedient  for  the  general  ad- 
vantage of  the  public."  Burke,  in  referring  to  this  defini- 
tion of  the  great  expounder  of  the  common  law,  suggested 
the  pertinent  inquiry:  "If  we  may  be  required  to  surren- 
der a  portion  of  our  natural  rights,  why  not  all?"  If  we 
sacrifice  a  portion  of  our  rights,  does  not  the  amount  so 
sacrificed  cease  to  be  a  question  of  principle,  and  the 
whole  argument  in  defense  of  natural  rights,  as  a  founda- 
tion for  any  claim  to  the  exercise  of  political  power,  is 
surrendered — merged  into  the  paramount  interest  of  so- 
ciety. However  plausible  political  theories  about  the 
natural  rights  of  man  may  appear,  and  how  well  supported 
by  argument,  which  seems,  by  any  logical  test,  to  be  ra- 
tional and  conclusive,  yet  the  chief  difificulty  in  giving 
them  practical  application  so  as  to  recognize  them  as 
great  cardinal  principles  in  government,  lies  in  finding  that 
state  of  society  to  which  they  are  adapted  and  will  ope- 
rate so  as  to  promote  liberty,  law  and  order. 

If  the  great  body  of  political  society  is  homogeneous, 
identified  in  interests,  feeling,  and  in  every  essential  fact, 
then  the  laws  of  unity  and  harmony  will  prevail,  the 
interests  of  all  be  promoted,  and  the  great  object  and  end 
of  government  secured. 

There  can  be  no  controversy  about  the  proposition,  in- 
deed, it  is  a  truism,  that  civil  government  is  instituted  to  se- 
cure the  governed  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights.  If  we 
assume,  with  the  Red  Republicans  of  France  or  the  Amer- 
ican Radicals,  that  all  men  have  the  same  or  equal  rights, 
it  necessarily  follows  that  it  is  impossible  to  organize  so- 
ciety, or  to  establish  public  order,  without  a  surrender  or 
sacrifice  of  some  of  these  rights.  But,  then,  all  men  men 
have  not  the  same  or  equal  rights.  One  man,  for  example, 
who  has  the  capacity  to  take  care  of  his  own  interest,  and 
to  govern  himself  in  all  the  proper  relations  of  Ufe,  has  the 
right  to  do  so.     Hence  it  would  be  an  act  of  oppression 


THE    NEGI*0    PROBLEM.  81 

to  place  him,  or  his  interest,  under  the  control  of  another. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  child,  or  the  man  who  has  not  the 
capacity  to  take  care  of  himgelf,  or  his  interest,  has  a  high 
claim,  if  not  a  sacred  right,  to  the  guidance  and  control  of 
those  who  are  wiser,  and  better  and  stronger  than  himself. 
If  this  proposition  is  sound  and  true,  in  its  application  to 
the  rights  and  interest  of  man,  in  the  mere  social  or  pri- 
vate relations  of  life,  a  fortiori,  it  becomes  applicable  in  his 
political  relations.  There  can  be  no  agency  or  influence 
more  disorganizing  and  destructive  of  the  vital  principles 
of  government,  than  the  introduction  of  the  communistic 
theory  that  "All  men  have  equal  rights,"  It  is  the  pre- 
cursor of  strife,  the  synonym  of  disorder,  the  counterpart 
of  revolution,  and  tt;e  very  genius  of  anarchy. 

In  the  State  of  Georgia  there  are  two  separate  and  dis- 
tinct races  of  men — thjs  very  antipodes  of  each  ether — dif- 
fering in  the  marked  characteristics  of  color,  origin,  in- 
stinct, habit,  education,  and  in  diversity  of  wants  and  con- 
dition. One  of  these  races  is  the  owner  of  the  soil,  the 
descendants  and  heirs  of  the  men  who  obtained  the  origi- 
nal charter  from  the  crown  of  England,  and  who  fought 
afterwards  to  secure  the  autonomy  of  local  rule.  They 
have  established  government,  and  founded  all  the  institu- 
tions that  an  intelligent  and  progressive  people  need,  in  a 
career  of  civilization. 

The  other  race  were  brought  here  as  slaves,  in  conform- 
ity with  the  recognized  sentiment  of  the  time.  They  were 
sunk  in  abject  ignorance,  and  degraded  to  the  very  lowest 
scale  of  human  existence ;  had  to  be  trained  to  proper 
modes  of  subsistence  by  a  forced  abstinence  from  the 
loathsome  and  savage  practice  of  eating  reptiles,  mush- 
rooms, and  the  raw  herbs  of  the  forest.  They  were  raised 
by  slavery  from  this  primitive  state,  and  made  to  fill  a 
sphere  of  usefulness  in  the  industrial  department  of  the 
State.  Though  emancipated  from  the  rule  of  the  master, 
they  are  still  children,  in  mental  attainment,  and  moral  dis. 


82  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

cipline — the  proper  subjects  for  pupilage,  control,  guidance 
support  and  instruction. 

It  would  seem  that  a  proper  solution  of  the  problem 
before  our  people,  is  to  continue  these  two  populations 
under  the  same  repubhcan  form  of  government,  so  that  the 
essential  conditions  of  social  order,  obedience  to  law,  the 
security  of  person,  respect  for  property,  the  remuneration 
of  labor,  and  the  regularity  of  civil  transactions,  may  be 
reasonably  assured.  And  we  believe  that  the  intelligent, 
thinking  mind  of  Georgia  rests  under  the  conviction  that 
this  desirable  end  cannot  be  attained  with  universal  suf- 
frage. 

In  re-adjusting  the  basis  of  suffrage  in  Georgia  (if  the 
Constitutional  Convention  to  be  holden  in  the  near  future 
should  deem  such  a  measure  politic),  there  is  some  diffi- 
culty in  determining  the  more  preferable  mode :  whether 
to  fix  it  upon  the  basis  of  intelligence  or  property,  or 
quahfications  embracing  both  of  these  features.  In  the 
present  condition  of  our  voting  population — with  such  a 
large  element  of  ignorance,  it  becomes  essentially  necessary 
to  require  some  degree  of  fitness  for  its  exercise,  evidenced 
by  the  ability  of  the  voter  to  "  read  and  write  the  Consti  - 
tution  of  the  State  "  (as  the  suffrage  clause  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Massachusetts  has  it,  and  we  might  adopt  New 
England  ideas  very  safely  in  this  direction,  and  to  that 
extent).  This  feature  should  be  embraced,  whether  we  go 
beyond  it  or  not.  In  the  eighty  five  or  ninety  thousand 
negro  voters  in  the  State,  we  perhaps  would  not  be  far 
wrong  (the  opinion,  however,  is  merely  conjectural,  in  the 
absence  of  any  statement  in  the  census  reports,  showing 
the  number  of  negro  voters  Avho  cannot  read  and  WTite)  in 
estimating  the  number  that  can  read  at  5,000.  This  rela- 
tively small  number  exercising  suffrage,  would,  in  the 
event  they  did  not  identify  themselves  with  the  great  body 
of  patriotic  white  voters,  by  keeping  on  the  color  line,  or 
nearly  all  of  them  "floaters,"  be  deprived  of  the  power  of 
doing  harm.     The   number   of  colored  youths  reaching 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  ^  S3 

their  majority,  who  have  learned  to  read,  would  not  prob- 
ably exceed  2,500  year.  This  number,  in  addition  to  the 
5,000  who  are  already  supposed  to  meet  the  suffrage  re- 
quirement, would,  we  might  say,  in  ten  years,(counting  the 
increased  number  of  youths  reaching  their  majority  annu- 
ally, to  make  up  the  death  rate  and  loss  by  emigration  of 
the  original  voters,)  make  the  number  of  30,000  voters. 
By  that  time  it  would  be  probably  ascertained  what  effect 
negro  voting  to  that  extent  would  have  upon  public  inter- 
est— whether  detrimental  or  otherwise — and  the  indications 
could  be  met  in  the  future  with  such  remedies  as  the  exi- 
gencies demanded. 

If  a  property  quahfication  was  required,  fixed  at  the  sum 
of  ^200.00,  in  addition  to  that  of  an  educational  basis,  it 
would  very  probably  reduce  the  number  of  colored  voters 
to  one-half  the  number  above  stated,  and  would,  in  effect, 
prevent  the  increase  of  the  negro  vote,  by  young  negroes 
reaching  their  majority,  who  could  vote  under  an  educa- 
tional requirement. 

The  effect  likely  to  be  produced  upon  the  negro  popula- 
tion disfranchised  by  one  or  both  of  these  limitations  upon 
suffrage,  would  be  passive  and  temporary.  It  was  thrust 
upon  them  unsohcited,  and  without  the  least  effort  upon 
their  part  to  gain  it.  They  have  not  since  cherished  it  as 
a  boon  of  any  great  value,  in  the  sense  of  gratifying  their 
pride,  stimulating  their  ambition,  or  elevating  their  man- 
hood. The  negro  is  only  conscious  of  his  sovereign  right 
when  waked  up  from  his  usual  lethargy  by  the  news,  to 
him,  of  an  impending  election,  with  orders  to  be  at  the 
polls  on  a  certain  day  and  hour,  and  if  the  necessary  stim- 
ulus has  been  brought  to  bear,  he  responds  with  alacrity — 
enters  the  role  of  a  suffrage  slinger  with  all  the  abandon  with 
which  he  formerly  went  to  a  corn  husking.  The  more  in- 
telligent and  well-to-do  class  of  negroes,  who  might  be  vo- 
ters under  either  limitation,  would  view  it  with  a  feehng  of 
indifference,  if  not  direct  approval,  as  it  would,  in  effect, 
elevate  their  importance  in  comparison,  and  create  a  feeling 


S4  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

somewhat  of  caste,  gratifying  to  their  pride  of  character. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  what  would  be  the  effect  of  limited 
suffrage  upon  the  class  of  white  voters  who  would  be  exclu- 
ded from  the  ballot-box  by  it.  And  herein  lies  the  main  diffi- 
culty in  extracting  the  poisoned  arrows  sent  by  radical  dia- 
blery  into  the  body  politic  of  the  South.  A  constitutional 
provision,  or  principle  of  law,  may,  in  certain  conditions  of 
society,  be  judicious  and  wholesome  in  its  operations, 
when,  under  a  change  of  conditions,  by  new  elements  in- 
troduced, differing  in  kind  and  nature,  it  may  become  alto- 
gether inapplicable  and  impolitic.  In  the  absence  of  the 
late  Constitutional  Amendments,  with  the  question  of 
suffrage  untouched,  there  would  have  been  no  element  in 
the  voting  population  of  Georgia,  that  would,  per  se,  have 
rendered  limited  suffrage  an  imperative  necessity.  The 
people  of 'Georgia  were  entirely  homogeneous — as  thor- 
oughly identified  in  sentiment  and  interest,  as  the  political 
society  of  a  State  could,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be.  The 
ignorant  and  poorer  population,  usually  denominated  the 
lower  class,  have  in  no  country  manifested  such  qualities 
of  virtue,  self-respect  and  manhood,  as  has  been  exhibited 
by  this  class  at  the  South.  The  institution  of  slavery, 
which  our  abolition  friends  endeavored  to  make  us  believe 
to  be  "the  sum  of  all  villainy,"  formed  the  substratum  of 
our  society,  and  was  tributary,  in  a  measure,  to  that  supe- 
rior type  of  the  lower  classes  at  the  South,  than  was  to  be 
elsewhere  found.  Here  the  man  of  ignorance  and  pen- 
ury, however  severe  the  struggle  with  adverse  fortune,  and 
however  low.it  might  sink  him  in  the  depths  of  wretched- 
ness, still  felt  there  was  an  element  below  him  whose 
level  he  must  not  reach,  and  from  which  he  must  recoil. 
The  very  thought  rekindled  his  pride,  and  nerved  him  for 
the  conflicts  of  life.  There  are  not  a  few  at  the  present 
time  among  the  illiterate  class,  who  are  men  of  real  worth, 
have,  by  persevering  industry,  accumulated  property,  and 
are  esteemed  in  the  sphere  of  their  acquaintance  as  public 
spirited  and  valued  citizens.     To  withhold  from  such  men. 


THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  85 

who  are  independent  in  thought  and  action,  the  ballot, 
would  be  difficult  to  reconcile  with  a  sense  of  justice,  and 
could  only  be  done  in  discharge  of  a  paramount  duty  to 
the  State.  To  impose  a  property  qualification  would  in 
like  manner,  withhold  the  ballot  from  another  class  equally 
worthy,  and  very  probably  with  higher  claims  to  the  exer- 
cise of  such  right. 

The  constitutional  act  of  limiting  suffi-age  in  Georgia, 
upon  either  basis  stated,  would  doubtless  meet  with  oppo- 
sition from  the  disfranchised  class.  It  could  not  be  reason- 
ably expected  that  men  would  readily  surrender  a  long- 
exercised  privilege,  which  they  had  been  taught  to  regard 
as  "the  badge  of  freemen,"  without  some  feeling  of  hu- 
miliation. Its  deprivation  under  existing  circumstances, 
would  carry  with  it  no  individual  debasement ;  no  mark  of 
dishonor,  to  blur  the  name  or  compromise  the  true  worth 
of  character.  It  would  rather  be  in  the  nature  of  those 
sacrifices  which  patriotism  and  high  sense  of  duty  call 
men  to  make,  and  whether  it  be  to  do,  to  forbear,  or  to 
suffer,  it  is  in  the  same  line  of  honorable  action,  and  will 
always  claim  the  meed  of  praise  due  to  him  that  makes 
the  offering. 

If  it  should  be  the  matured  and  solemnly  declared  opin- 
ion of  the  people  of  Georgia — spoken  in  a  Constitutional 
Convention  of  fairly-chosen  representative  men — that 
abridged  suffrage  is  imperiously  demanded  as  a  shield  and 
safeguard  in  the  future,  it  will  doubtless  be  acquiesced  in 
by  all  classes  and  conditions  of  our  people. 

The  third  consideration  that  enters  into  the  expediency 
of  incorporating  Hmited  suffrage  into  the  Constitution  of 
Georgia,  as  stated  in  the  previous  classification,  is  the 
effect  produced  in  diminishing  the  representation  of  Geor- 
gia in  Congress,  as  provided  by  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment. 

Arguments  that  enter  into  the  discussion  of  this  branch 
of  the  question  of  expediency,  are  to  be  drawn,  for  the 
most  part,  by  contrasting  the  interest  the  people  of  Geor- 


86  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

gia  have  in,  and  the  benefits  that  accrue  to  them  from,  the 
State  and  Federal  Governments  respectively.  Or  the 
argument  might  be  put  more  appositely  and  pointedly,  in 
estimating  or  weighing  any  probable  disadvantage  or  loss 
to  the  people  of  Georgia  from  a  diminished  representation 
in' Congress,  against  the  direct  and  tangible  evils  of  uni- 
versal suffrage.  We  have  already  brought  under  review 
some  of  the  more  prominent  evils  of  universal  suffrage, 
which  the  reader,  will  keep  in  mind,  will  obviate  the  neces- 
sity of  any  farther  reference  or  discussion.  It  is  proper, 
in  the  first  place,  to  ascertain  to  what  extent  Georgia's 
representation  in  the  lower  branch  of  Congress  would  be 
diminished,  in  case  she  restricted  suffrage,  and  in  the  event 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment  was  enforced.  This  amend- 
ment provides,  in  case  any  State  should  abridge  the  right 
of  suffrage,  that  "the  basis  of  representation  therein 
shall  be  reduced  in  the  proportion  v/hich  the  number 
of  such  male  citizens  (disfranchised)  shall  bear  to  the  whole 
number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of  age  in  such 
State.  It  cannot  be  definitely  ascertained  what  would  be 
the  representation  of  Georgia  in  Congress  upon  a  basis  of 
limited  suffrage  in  the  State,  owing  to  the  absence  of  any 
statement  in  the  census  reports,  giving  the  whole  number 
of  males  over  twenty-one  years  of  age.  We  can  on^y 
approximate  it  by  taking  the  highest  vote  polled  since  the 
last  census.  The  aggregate  vote  polled  at  the  presidential 
election  in  1872,  (we  have  not  seen  a  statement  of  the 
consolidated  vote  of  Georgia  in  the  late  October  and  No- 
vember election,)  was  (if  our  memory  is  not  at  fault)  about 
187,000.  We  find  in  the  census  reports  that  there  are 
21,899  ilhterate  white  males  over  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
and  100,551  colored,  making,  in  the  aggregate,  122,450, 
to  be  deducted  from  the  whole  number  of  males  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age  in  the  State.  Upon  calculations 
made,  in  which  the  vote  of  Georgia  furnishes  partial  and 
incomplete  data,  we  find  that  the  Congressional  represen- 
tation of  the  State  would  be  reduced  to  four  members,  or 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLLM.  8^ 

a  loss  of  mora  than  one-half  of  her  present  delectation  in 
Congress.  This  would  be  a  great  reduction  in  the  Con- 
gressional representation  of  the  State,  and  the  gross  ine- 
quality with  other  States  would  be  manifest. 

If  we  consider  the  functional  relations  of  the  Federal 
Government  to  the  people  of  the  States,  and  its  constitu- 
tional relation  to  the  States  as  a  political  body,  we  shall 
find  that  the  duties  of  the  Federal  Government  to  the  peo- 
ple directly,  and  to  the  States,  are  few  and  simple,  and  that 
the  benefits  which  accrue,  with  the  exception  of  protection 
against  foreign  aggression  and  domestic  violence,  (the 
latter  of  little  significance  and  of  doubtful  utility,)  and  that 
of  carrying  the  mails,  are  of  but  little  practical  and  intrinsic 
value.  We  would  be  understood  as  speaking  of  the  posi- 
tive interest  measured  by  actual  results,  that  the  people 
have  in,  or  receive  from,  the  State  and  Federal  Govern- 
ments in  the  dual  relation.  We  would  not  underrate  the 
value  and  importance  of  the  National  Government  as  an 
integral  part  of  our  political  system.  In  the  sphere  of  its 
constitutional  duties,  and  wisely  and  justly  administered  as 
it  was  for  the  most  part,  previous  to  the  late  conflict,  it 
was  truly  "the  best  government  the  sun  has  ever  shone 
upon."  It  was  modeled  after  a  careful  and  profound  study 
of  the  best  systems  of  government  in  the  past,  with  new 
and  striking  features  introduced,  that  marked  a  turning 
point — formed  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  constitutional 
government.  The  American  system  of  government  is 
complex  and  pecuh'ar — differing  in  many  important  re- 
spects from  those  that  have  obtained  in  the  past  or  have  an 
existence  at  the  present  time.  The  distinguishable  fea- 
tures from  that  of  other  systems  of  free  confederate  gov- 
ernments is  the  wise  provision  by  its  framers  In  the  distri- 
bution of  power  and  duties  between  the  Federal  and  State 
Governments,  and  the  judicious  adjustment  of  the  co-ordi- 
nate branches  of  the  Federal  head — each  with  its  separate 
and  distinct  functions,  moving  in  harmony  in  forwarding 
measures  of  public  policy,  and  each  in  turn  serving  as  a 


88  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

check  upon  the  assumption  of  unauthorized  power 'by  the 
other,  in  such  way  as  to  preserve  the  balance  and  maintain 
the  integrity  of  the  whole.  The  checks  and  limitations 
imposed  upon  majorities,  in  legislating  upon  public  ques- 
tions in  which  there  may  be  conflicting  interest,  and  in 
which  due  regard  should  be  shown  to  the  rights  of  minor- 
ities, have  their  foundation  in  the  most  just  and  enlightened 
conceptions  of  political  science. 

The  great  cardinal  principle  that  "all  governments  de- 
rive their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed," 
is  the  gist  and  substance  of  democratic  institutions,  and  its 
discovery  and  incorporation  into  our  political  system  sheds 
imperishable  renown  on  "the  Fathers  of  the  Republic." 
De  Toqueville,  in  his  "  Democracy  of  America,"  charac- 
terizes it  as  "a  wholly  novel  theory,  which  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  great  discovery  in  modern  political  science.' 
Mr.  Stephens,  in  his  "  Constitutional  View  of  the  War  Be- 
tween the  States,"  in  speaking  cf  it,  says  :  "  From  this 
simple  discovery  did  indeed  follow  the  most  momentous 
consequences.  From  it  sprang  that  unparalleled  career  of 
prosperity  and  greatness  which  marked  our  history  under 
its  beneficent  operations  for  more  than  three-quarters  of  a 
century."  But,  alas  !  that  "  three-quarters  of  a  century  " 
should  have  marked  a  period  in  "  the  beneficent  opera- 
tion "  of  this  great  principle  of  civil  liberty,  and  that 
another  era  should  have  been  inaugurated,  in  which  the 
hated  dogma  that  "  might  makes  right"  became  the  dom- 
inant idea. 

The  lessons  of  history,  corroborated  by  our  own  bitter 
experience,  teach  us  that  the  best  systems  of  govern- 
ment, based  upon  the  sanctity  of  constitutional  law,  and 
administered  for  a  time  with  wisdom  and  justice,  may  be 
perverted  in  the  madness  of  an  hour,  and  become  the  worst 
instrument  of  oppression.  We  have  introduced  this  brief 
generalization  of  some  of  the  leading  features  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government,  not  for  the  special  purpose  of  elucida- 
tion, or  so  much  as  an  argument  germain  to  the  subject 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  S9 

under    notice,   but   rather   with   the   view    of  pointing   a 
moral. 

The  great  error  of  the  South  previous  to  the  late  sec- 
tional war,  and  one  that  contributed  indirectly  and  without 
design,  to  bringing  it  on,  was  the  absorbing  interest  felt 
and  manifested  in  Federal  politics.  This  was  due  in  a 
measure  to  the  constitution  of  Southern  society.  The  dif- 
fusion of  wealth,  and  the  leisure  it  afforded,  the  liberal 
education  of  the  better  classes,  the  absence  of  diversified 
industries  to  engage  the  thought  and  direct  the  energies  of 
a  people,  chivalrous  by  nature,  and  taught  to  command  in 
the  mastery  of  an  inferior  race,  were  circumstances  that 
naturally  required  a  broad  field  of  interest  and  excitement, 
and  this  was  readily  found  in  that  of  Federal  politics,  un 
der  our  free  institutions,  with  the  road  to  political  prefer- 
ment open  alike  to  all ;  our  young  men  who  aspired  to 
distinction,  turned  readily  to  politics  as  more  likely  to  se- 
cure to  them  the  rewards  of  ambition.  Hence,  every 
recurring  election  was  looked  to  as  an  occasion  of  deep 
interest,  the  issues  involved  were  magnified  by  the  politi- 
cians, the  people  took  political  excitement  as  by  contagion, 
party  spirit  ran  high,  and  often  the  real  issues  before  the 
people  were  lost  sight  of  in  the  zeal  for  party  success. 
Notwithstanding  the  South  had  accorded  to  her  the  palm 
for  eloquence  and  statesmanship  in  the  National  Legisla- 
ture, and  furnished  the  larger  number  of  Presidents,  yet 
the  North  gathered  the  fruits  of  substantial  victory  in  her 
protective  tariffs,  improvement  of  harbors  and  rivers,  and  in 
the  general  disbursements  from  the  Federal  treasury  that 
went  to  develop  and  enrich  her  section. 

While  this  all-absorbing  intererst  in  National  politics 
brought  no  substantial  good  to  the  South,  it  proved  a  seri- 
ous loss  in  the  diversion  of  her  best  talents,  and  its  most 
valuable  service  from  purely  State  interest,  where  it  was 
most  needed,  and  could  have  been  most  profitably  ex- 
pended. 

The  South  need  not  expect  to  share  more  liberally  in 


90  THE    NEGRO    TROBLEM. 

the  favor  and  patronage  of  the  General  Government  in 
the  future  than  in  the  past.  Georgia,  in  particular,  will 
not  be  likely  to  receive  any  substantial  aid  in  the  direction 
that  it  is  needed,  and  in  form  that  will  benefit  her  people 
at  large.  She  has  no  rivers  that  are  great  channels  of 
commerce,  that  need  the  fostering  aid  of  Congressional 
appropriation.  Her  harbors  upon  the  coast,  where  of  any 
commercial  importance,  become  objects  of  national  interest, 
in  the  way  of  promoting  the  public  revenue,  and  will  re- 
ceive the  necessary  aid  from  Congress  whether  our  repre- 
sentation is  diminished  or  not.  Any  great  measures  of  in- 
terest to  the  States,  like  that  of  distributing  the  proceeds 
from  the  sale  of  public  lands,  among  the  States,  for  school 
purposes,  as  was  begun  a  few  years  ago  by  donation  of  land 
scrip — and  again  agitated  in  the  last  Congress  respectively 
for  a  like  purpose — if  adopted  by  that  body  as  the  policy  that 
shall  govern  that  great  interest  in  the  future,  will  be  dis- 
tributed upon  the  basis  of  population  or  illiteracy  in  the 
States,  and  Georgia,  in  such  case,  would  receive  her  quota 
irrespective  of  her  numerical  strength  in  Congress.  As 
slavery  is  out  of  the  way,  and  there  will  probably  be  no 
more  constitutional  tinkering  on  the  negro  question,  we 
may  reasonably  hope,  so  far  as  the  South  is  concerned, 
that  sectional  issues  will  be  put  to  rest  in  the  future.  As  the 
war  feeling  dies  out,  considerations  of  interest  will  prompt 
the  North  to  be  more  just,  if  not  generous.  The  intimate 
commercial  relations  between  the  sections  —  the  chief 
market  the  South  affords  for  Northern  manufactures  and 
Western  produce,  and  considerations  growing  out  of  the 
public  debt,  will  have  a  conservative  influence  in  shaping 
legislation  in  Congress,  ard  operate  as  moral  advantages 
to  the  South. 

Georgia,  in  her  impoverished  condition,  with  her  people 
groaning  under  the  weight  of  private  and  public  indebted- 
ness, with  taxation  necessarily  high  to  meet  her  maturing 
obhgations  and  current  expenses,  and  with  all  her  indus- 
tries sharing  their  proportional  part  in  the  general  financial 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  91 

distress,  certainly  demands  the  highest  endeavors  and  most 
faithful  Labor  of  every  true  son  in  her  behalf. 

The  public  press  of  Georgia,  conducted,  for  the  most 
part,  by  men  of  ability,  culture  and  public  spirit,  should 
lend  its  potent  aid  in  building  up  our  languishing  industries. 
The  best  ability — combining  practical  thought  with  work- 
ing capacity,  and  thorough  identity  with  every  interest  in 
the  State — should  be  brought  into  our  Legislature.  Inter- 
est in  Federal  politics  should  be  subordinated  to  the  para- 
mount claims  of  Georgia's  local  interest.  That  class  of 
statesmanship  which  ignores  local  State  interest,  and 
plumes  itself  for  the  arena  of  Federal  politics,  and  seeks 
a  seat  in  the  national  legislature,  as  its  chosen  field  of 
duty  and  honor,  should  be  placed  at  a  discount  in  Georgia. 

As  unity,  strength  and  internal  peace  are  essential  to 
the  prosperity  and  well-being  of  political  communities, 
our  people  should  endeavor  to  make  the  political  body 
homogeneous,  by  removing  from  it  that  element  that  will 
continue  to  be  the  author  of  confusion  and  discord.  And 
if  a  diminished  representation  in  Congress,  by  which  Geor- 
gia will  lose  five  of  her  members,  be  the  price  and  penalty 
for  shielding  her  interest  from  the  perils  of  universal  suf- 
frage, then  let  her  pay  the  one  and  incur  the  other. 

THE  MORAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  NEGRO. 

The  moral  and  religious  aspect  of  the  negro  race  at  the 
South,  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  concern  to  the  Christian 
mind  of  our  section,  but  invites  the  thoughtful  attention 
of  all,  who  properly  estimate  the  value  of  moral  agencies, 
in  upholding  the  integrity  of  law,  in  the  promotion  of 
public  order,  and  in  promoting  the  well-being  of  society. 
The  consciousness  cannot  be  divested  of  a  measure  of  ap- 
prehension to  our  people,  in  knowing  that  there  are  four 
and  one-half  millions  of  people  of  another  race,  intermin- 
gled with  them  in  a  civil,  political  and  industrial  relation, 
who  are  ignorant  and  depraved — under  but  little  moral 
restraint  in  any  sense — and  held  to  legal  obedience,  for 


92  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

the  most  part,  from  the  fear  and  dread  of  punishment  the 
law  inflicts  upon  its  violators. 

Although  the  negro,  by  coming  in  contact  with  civilizing 
influences,  has  been  far  removed  from  his  primitive  state  of 
barbarism,  and  made  considerable  advance  towards  the 
goal  of  a  better  life,  yet  he  has  not  reached  that  stage  of 
mental  and  moral  development  that  would  entitle  him  to 
a  place  of  equal  rank  among  civilized  communities.  The 
test  which  the  enhghtened  opinion  of  the  present  day  im- 
poses, when  the  claims  of  any  people  to  civilization  are 
asserted,  whether  they  form  a  separate  political  com- 
munity, under  a  government  of  their  own,  or  whether 
they  are  segregated  into  a  distinct  class  under  an  enlight- 
ened government,  are,  for  the  most  part,  tests  of  a  moral 
character.  There  may  be  material  development,  evinced 
in  the  acquisition  of  wealth  and  its  proper  use  in  securing 
the  conveniences,  the  comforts,  and  luxuries  of  life,  and 
farther  evidenced  by  familiarity  with  art,  literature,  and 
the  refinements  of  social  life ;  yet,  if  the  moral  qualities 
of  truth,  justice,  and  humanity — imparted  by  the  teach- 
ings of  Christianity — are  wanting,  it  falls  far  short  of  true 
civiHzation.  The  acceptance  of  this  proposition,  as  a  pos- 
tulate, at  this  day,  obviates  the  necessity  of  its  illustration 
by  instituting  comparisons  between  the  most  enlightened 
states  of  society  in  ancient  times,  with  that  of  modern 
European  or  American  civiHzation. 

If  we  separate  the  negro,  by  that  wall  of  partition  which 
color  and  caste  have  made  immovable,  and  insuperable, 
and  judge  him  as  a  distinct  class,  upon  his  attainments, 
capabilities,  and  moral  status,  we  will  place  him  without 
the  pale  of  civilization. 

In  discussing  the  moral  condition  of  the  negro,  it 
is  not  our  purpose  to  deal  with  that  class  of  facts  that 
are  simply  conjectural,  or  of  doubtful  import,  but  those 
which  present  themselves  in  clear  and  palpable  outline, 
whose  force  and  significance  are  felt  and  seen  by  every 
observant  man  at  the  South.     The  broad  and  unmistakable 


THE    NEGRO   PROBLEM.  93 

facts  that  are  presented  in  the  statistics  of  crime  in  our 
State,  showing  a  steady  increase  every  year — the  daily 
scenes  that  are  enacted  in  our  criminal  courts,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  criminal  practices  in  the  way  of  petit  larceny, 
breach  of  the  peace,  adultery,  and  other  evidences  of  de- 
pravity, of  which  no  legal  cognizance  is  taken,  go  to  make 
up  a  record  for  the  negro  that  is  appalling  to  contemplate. 
Those  facts  presenting  themselves  in  the  daily  life  of  the 
negro,  and  the  main  features  that  go  to  make  up  his  his- 
tory, are  not  merely  phenomenal  in  their  nature,  or  like  the 
outcropings  of  evil  that  is  produced  by  disturbing  the  nor- 
mal conditions  of  society,  but  have  their  origin  in  part  in 
the  natural  depravity  of  the  negro,  and  are  partly  attribu- 
table to  the  absence,  or  want,  of  proper  moral  and  religious 
instruction.  The  bread  riots  that  sometimes  occur  in  large 
cities,  the  strikes  among  the  labor  class  which  often  give 
rise  to  a  turbulent  spirit,  and  at  times  accompanied  with 
violence  and  outrage,  and  the  political  and  other  disturb- 
ances in  society,  in  which  reason  is  subordinate  to  passion, 
and  evil  results  follow,  have  an  inciting  cause  that  produce 
them — are  simply  phenomenal  in  their  character,  and  after 
expending  the  energy  it  aroused,  society  again  assumes  its 
normal  condition. 

The  [case  presented  by  the  totally  emancipated  negro  is 
quite  different.  A  large,  per  cent,  of  the  wrong-doing  and 
evil  which  he  inflicts  upon  society  are  attributable  to  motives 
that  are  inherent  in  his  nature — the  bad  impulses  that  flow 
from  a  low  state  of  morals.  He  may  be  quietly  at  work  in 
the  field,  or  passing  leisurely  along  the  highway,  free  from 
all  mental  or  emotional  excitement  at  the  time,  and  yet,  if 
occasion  presents  itself,  he  may  perpetrate  (as  the  newspa- 
per press  is  constantly  testifying)  the  most  revolting  act  in 
the  catalogue  of  crime.  He  may  wake  up  from  a  quiet 
sleep,  with  the  demands  of  his  nature  satisfied,  or  ample 
food  at  hand,  and  no  immediate  want  pressing  him,  when 
he  will  go  out  and  commit  a  theft  of  something  of  trifling 
value,  and  in  many  cases  will  prefer  to  pilfer  a  small  article 


94  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

when  he  knows  the  owner  would  give  it  to  him  by  simply 
asking  for  it.  It  is  thought  by  many  who  have  constant 
dealing  with  the  negro  in  a  business  way,  that  he  has  less 
regard  for  truth  now  than  when  a  slave,  when,  in  that  state 
an  untruth  would  oftentimes  shield  him  from  correction,  and 
seemingly  make  the  temptation  to  evade  truth  stronger  then 
than  the  ordinary  motives  that  may  now  actuate  him. 

If  the  statistics  of  crime,  which  usually  afford  the  most 
reliable  data  for  judging  the  moral  status  of  a  people,  are 
to  enter  into  any  estimate  we  may  make  of  that  of  the 
Southern  blacks  at  the  present  time,  we  are  forced  to  infer 
that  he  is  retrograding,  in  this  particular,  the  farther  he  re- 
cedes from  a  state  of  slavery.  The  United  States  census 
report,  as  yet,  furnish  no  complete  data  upon  this  point,  as  it 
only  embraced  the  five  years  of  the  negro's  history  since  his 
civil  relations  have  been  changed.  The  next  census  report 
will  be  looked  to  with  profound  interest  by  all  those  who 
are  watching  the  tendency  of  the  colored  race  at  the  South 
in  his  present  state  of  freedom.  W^e  have  seen  estimates, 
based  upon  the  number  of  annual  convictions  for  crime  by 
our  State  courts,  which  fix  the  rate  of  increase  in  criminal 
convictions  at  ten  per  cent,  for  the  last  ten  years. 

The  inquiry  has  doubtless  suggested  itself  to  every 
thoughtful  mind,  why  has  the  negro  exhibited  a  moral 
retrogression,  under  circumstances  seemingly  more  favor- 
able to  his  elevation  in  this  point  of  view  than  those  that 
environed  him  in  a  state  of  slavery?  And  if  slavery  was 
"  the  sum  of  all  villainy,"  as  the  abolitionists  characterized 
it,  certainly  the  converse  is  true,  and  that  a  liberation  from 
the  shackels  of  slavery  would  bring  with  it  ameliorating  in- 
fluences that  would  at  once  begin  to  lift  the  negro  from  the 
depths  of  degradation,  and  make  his  ascent  to  a  higher 
standard  of  morals  an  assured  fact.  If  we  should  examine 
into  the  causes  which  have  operated  to  the  disadvantage 
and  detriment  of  the  negro  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  and 
especially  those  influences  that  have  changed  for  the  worse 
his  mere  moral  conduct,  we  would  doubtless  find  them  to  be 


THE    KEGRO    PROBLEM.  95 

such  as  should  not  go  to  the  prejudice  of  the  negro.  The 
change  in  his  civil  status,  operating  upon  him  in  a  way 
that  he  could  not  understand,  and  bringing  with  it  a  new 
order  of  discipline  that  was  not  remedial,  and  wholly  v,i\- 
suited  to  his  nature,  has,  in  effect,  tended  to  give  rein  rather 
than  check  his  propensity  to  evil.  Another  cause  of  his 
moral  decline,  and  one  that  most  probably  has  contributed 
as  much  to  it  as  the  one  just  stated,  is  the  great  v/ant  of 
proper  religious  instruction  to  aid  and  direct  him  in  pursuit 
of  a  better  life. 

And  we  doubt  not  that  a  careful  and  proper  examination 
into  the  state  of  religion  that  obtains  among  the  negroes 
of  the  South,  would  open  up  to  view  the  broadest  field  for 
missionary  effort  that  can  be  found  under  the  canopy  of 
heaven.  In  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  slavery  there  was 
a  deep  interest  manifested  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the 
Southern  slaves  by  the  Christian  people  of  the  South,  and 
there  were  regular  and  systematic  efforts  expended  in  their 
behalf  by  Southern  churches,  that  not  only  absolved  them 
from  any  blame  or  reproach,  (as  was  often  the  case  in  the 
indiscriminate  abuse  of  slavery  by  Northern  fanatics,)  for 
not  providing  for  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  negro,  but  show 
on  the  other  hand  (as  we  shall  verify  by  statistics)  schemes 
of  broadest  philanthropy  and  religious  enterprise  which 
have  not  been  exceeded  in  the  missionary  labors  of  any 
other  people. 

The  following  statement,  made  up  from  the  annual  re- 
ports of  the  churches  named,  in  the  year  1859,  shows  the 
extent  to  which  the  slave  population  of  the  South  had  been 
brought  under  the  influence  of  Christianity  and  led  to  em- 
brace its  truths : 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South  (colored  members) 188,000 

Missionary  and  Anti-Missionary  Baptists  (colored  members) 175,000 

Presbyterian  Church  (colored  members) 38,000 

Protestant  Episcopal  Church  (colored  members) 7,000 

Christian  Church  (colored  memcers) 10,000 

All  other  denominations  (estim'Ued) 35,000 

Total 453.000 


96  THE    NEGRO   PROBLEM. 

The  remark  was  made  in  one  of  the  reports  quoted, 
that  the  number  of  slaves  brought  into  the  Christian 
church,  as  a  consequence  of  the  introduction  of  the  Afri- 
can race  into  the  United  States,  exceeds  all  the  converts 
made  throughout  the  heathen  world  by  the  whole  mission- 
ary force  employed  by  Protestant  Christendom.  Statistics 
compiled  from  authentic  data  in  1859,  gives  the  whole 
number  of  converts  in  the  Prptest=int  Christian  missions  in 
Asia,  Africa,  Pacific  Islands,  West  Indies,  and  North 
American  Indians  at  250,000;  thus  showing  that  the 
number  of  African  converts  in  the  Southern  States  was  al- 
most double  the  whole  number  of  heathen  converts.  These 
great  results,  showing  the  achievements  of  combined 
Christian  effort  at  the  South  for  the  negro,  necessitated 
the  use  of  systematic  and  far-reaching  plans — engaging  the 
services  of  a  considerable  [number  of  Christian  men,  and 
a  large  expenditure  of  money.  Those  of  our  people  who 
were  not  connected  with  the  church,  and  who  owned  slave 
property,  were  generally  actuated  by  humane  and  consid- 
erate views  upon  the  subject  of  religious  instruction  for 
the  slave.  The  extensive  missionaryj^work,  embracing  al. 
most  the  whole  area  of  slave  population,  was  largely  sup- 
plemented by  the  labors  of  Southern  ministers  in  the  reg- 
ular pastoral  work  of  the  whites,  in  preaching  to  the  blacks 
whenever  opportunity  presented  itself. 

The  slave  population  of  the  South  in  1860  numbered 
3,953,760;  by  calculation  we  find  that  11|  per  cent,  of  the 
aggregate,  and  more  than  50  per  cent,  of  the  adult  negro 
population  were  members  of  the  church.  Massachusetts, 
or  any  other  Northern  State,  will  not  show  in  their  church 
statistics  results  so  favorable  to  the  success  of  Christian 
effort  as  was  here  exhibited  among  the  slaves  of  the 
South. 

We  do  not  present  this  as  any  argument  in  defense  of 
the  institution  of  slavery,  but  simply  to  show  what  was 
done  for  the  moral  improvement  of  the  negro  in  slavery, 
by  way  of  vindicating  our  people  from  the  malignant  and 


THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM.  9/ 

mendacious  assaults  of  the  fanatics  of  the  North,  who,  now 
merged  into  the  Radical  party,  are  still  rehearsing  the 
stale  slanders  of  injustice  and  inhumanity  against  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South.  The  extent  to  which  the  negro  was 
vindicated  by  the  disinterested  Christian  efforts  of  the 
Southern  slaveholder,  during  his  term  of  servitude,  may 
be  inferred  by  contrasting  the  state  of  moral  and  religious 
advancement  attained  at  his  manumission,  with  the  be- 
nighted condition  of  savage  life  in  his  native  lands. 

But  when  the  Federal  ukase  was  issued  and  put  in  force, 
liberating  the  slave  from  the  rule  of  the  master,  and  con- 
ferring shortly  afterward,  civil  and  political  rights  upon 
the  manumitted  blacks,  have  begun  at  once  an  utter  un- 
doing and  complete  obliteration  of  all  that  had  been  ac- 
complished for  the  spiritual  good  of  the  negro  in  the  past, 
and  has,  during  his  decade  of  freedom,  been  drifting  back- 
wards, and  if  not  arrested  and  put  under  better  influences, 
will  very  probably  have  reached  such  a  demoralized  and 
corrupt  state  in  religion,  within  the  next  ten  years,  as  to 
make  his  entrance  upon  the  practice  of  pagan  rites  no 
improbable  event. 

It  may  be  thought  by  some  that  this  view  is  prejudicial 
and  even  unjust,  that  there  is  really  nothing  in  the  present 
religious  state  of  the  negro'to  warrant  the  assumption  that 
he  has  deteriorated  in  the  practice  of  Christian  virtues,  or 
shown  weakening  of  religious  principle  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  justify  such  conclusions.  We  are  told  that  the  negroes  are 
a  church-going  people,  nearly  all  of  them  are  members  of 
some  religious  society,  and  manifest  a  devotional  spirit, 
and  seem,  above  all  other  people,  to  enter  into  the  enjoy- 
ment of  religious  worship.  This  very  fact,  coupled  with 
their  bad  system  of  morals,  and  the  perversion  of  the  true 
spirit  of  Christianity  in  their  worship,  forms  the  worst 
feature  in  the  negroes'  case.  If  there  was  an  abatement 
of  religious  fervor,  and  the  falling  back  of  individual  mem- 
bers into  a  state  of  spiritual  coldness  conesponding  with 
the  state  of  morals,  and  always  guaged  by  it,  as  honest 

7 


98  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

people  do  who  have  an  enlightened  conscience,  and  follow 
religion  as  a  matter  of  principle,  there  would  be  far  more 
hope  for  the  negro,  and  justify  the  belief  that  he  could 
work  out  the  problem  of  his  spiritual  good,  unaided  by 
the  kind  offices  and  oversight  of  the  white  people. 

The  race-feeling  that  manifests  itself  in  the  instinctive 
desire  to  cut  loose  from  all  association  with  other  people, 
and  form  a  homogeneous  society  of  their  own,  as  the  infe- 
rior races  always  do,  when  left  to  their  natural  bent,  was 
exhibited  by  the  Southern  negroes  in  their  religion  before 
developing  itself  in  any  other  form.  The  first  year  of  their 
emancipation  was  marked  by  an  earnest  purpose  to  sever 
their  church  relations  with  those  denominations  at  the 
South,  that  had  manifested  the  deepest  interest  in  their  reli- 
gious welfare,  without  waiting  for  any  manifestation  on 
the  part  of  the  whites,  that  a  retention  of  their  colored 
membership  was  not  desirable,  but  in  many  instances  ab- 
solved the  connection  against  the  counsels  and  entreaty  of 
the  paternal  church.  It  .was  seen  at  once  that  any  op- 
position to  the  wisk  of  the  negroes  to  sever  their  church 
relations,  would  be  futile  and  unavailing,  and  that  he  must, 
for  a  time,  be  left  to  the  fearful  experiment  of  his  own 
spiritual  guidance,  with  all  his  inherent  depravity  and  un- 
reason operating  to  increase  the  hazard  he  was  undergo- 
ing. 

Immediately  upon  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Northern 
Methodist  Church  entered  upon  the  execution  of  plans 
that  had  already  been  devised,  and  cherished  with  the 
most  ardent  expectations — that  of  incorporating  the  whole 
negro  population  of  the  South  into  its  folds.  With  all  the 
zeal  and  unwisdom  of  the  iconoclast,  they  entered  upon 
the  appointed  mission,  self-assured  that  all  obstacles  to  its 
consummation  would  be  removed — if  necessary,  by  physi- 
cal force — and  that  the  most  signal  success  would  crown 
the  effort.  The  purpose  was  evidently  two-fold — political 
and  ecclesiastical ;  the  first  to  strengthen  and  consolidate 
the  power  of  the  Radical  party  and  "  secure  the  fruits  of 


THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM.  99 

the  war,"  and  the  second  was  to  swell  the  numerical 
strength  of  their  church  by  adding  another  million  of 
members,  and  make  it  the  grandest  and  most  glorious 
epoch  in  its  history.  It  selected  men  with  especial  fitness 
and  adaptation  for  the  work  in  hand — men  whose  intellects, 
education  and  training  if  it  had  made  them  gentlemen, had 
not  given  them  any  very  clear  conceptions  of  the  duties  of 
Christian  gentlemen.  They  came  with  the  idea  that  military 
conquest  of  the  South  by  the  Federal  forces  implied  a 
complete  surrender  of  every  right,  civil,  political  and  re- 
ligious, and,  as  their  church  was  pre-eminently  the  one  of 
"moral  ideas"  and  religious  progress,  it  was  its  preroga- 
tive to  come  in  and  take  possession  of  the  Southern  Meth- 
odist Church  property,  (the  legal  title  to  which  had  been 
an  controversy  twenty  years  before,  and  settled"  by  the 
highest  judicial  tribunal  in  the  country,)  with  the  purpose 
and  intent  of  appropriating  it  for  the  use  of  the  negroes^ 
and  such  whites  as  they  might  proselyte,  and  bring  into 
their  organization. 

They  established  church  papers  as  one  of  the  instru- 
ments of  their  propaganda,  which  were  designed  to  circulate 
among  the  ignorant  negroes  and  low  classes  of  white  peo- 
ple, not  for  the  purpose  of  imparting  scriptural  truth  to 
their  benighted  minds,  but  to  inflame  their  prejudices  and 
passions  by  falsehood  and  defamation.  Money,  which 
was  recognized  by  them  as  the  sinews  of  other  contests 
than  that  of  war,  was  freely  drawn  from  their  ple- 
thoric treasury,  and  offered  as  a  subsidy  to  impecunious 
ministers  at  the  South,  whose  services  might  be  available 
in  the  plan  of  "disintegration  and  absorption."  But  the 
Southern  negro,  with  all  his  obtuseness  and  gullibility,  was 
not  to  be  caught  in  the  gospel  net  of  Northern  Methodists 
that  had  been  spread  with  such  earnest  expectation.  In 
the  very  overtures  of  the  Northern  Methodists,  to  the 
Southern  negro,  there  seems  to  be  a  repellant  force 
brought  into  play.  The  coldness,  cant  and  hypocracy  of 
puritanical  philanthropy  was  instinctively  felt  by  the  un- 


100  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

suspecting  negro,  and  like  the  negative  forces  under  the 
laws  of  affinity,  no  effect  was  produced,  leaving  the  matter 
upon  which  they  were  acting  undisturbed. 

The  cause  of  such  a  signal  failure  was,  doubtless,  partly 
due  to  the  organization  of  what  is  known  as  the  African  M. 
E.  Church,  which  possesed  a  peculiarly  attractive  feature 
to  the  negro  at  this  time,  on  account  of  its  formation  and 
entire  government,  being  independent  of  any  dictation  or 
control  of  the  white  race.  The  springing  up  of  this  inde- 
pendent negro  church,  just  at  this  juncture,  although  it 
possessed  but  little  inherent  soundness  or  element  of  good 
for  the  negro,  was,  if  not  providential,  at  least,  a  stroke 
of  good  fortune  for  the  South.  And  though  it  was  a 
poh'tico-religious  affair,  it  was  purely  in  the  interest  of 
the  negro,  and  was  not  made,  we  think,  the  vehicle  in 
carrying  forward  Ihe  dirty  schemes  of  the  carpet-bag  class 
of  radical  politicians.  Conducted  purely  on  the  color- 
line  in  religion  and  in  pohtics,  it  doubtless  had  a  good  deal 
to  do  in  securing  the  political  coalition  between  "  Blifil 
and  Black  George,"  a  combination  of  the  puritan  and  the 
negro,  making,  in  this  compound,  a  political  vampire  that 
was  fast  sapping  the  life-blood  of  the  South.  If  the 
Methodists  of  the  North  had  met  with  any  considerable 
degree  of  success,  in  bringing  the  negroes  of  the  South  into 
their  church,  it  would,  at  that  time,  have  been  the  cause 
of  unmixed  evil  to  the  peace  and  welfare  of  both  races 
at  the  South.  The  conditions  of  success,  as  they  thought 
and  as  their  actions  confirmed,  were  to  play  upon  the  pre- 
judices of  the  negro,  so  as  to  alienate  him  from  his  then 
existing  church  relations,  and  to  have  kept  him  perma- 
nently in  their  society,  which  would  have  necessitated  the 
continuance  of  the  iniquitous  policy  that  had  brought  him  in. 

It  would  be  no  easy  task  to  mark  out  the  devious  and 
uncertain  path  the  Southern  negro  has  traveled  during 
the  last  ten  years  of  his  religious  history,  and  equally 
as  diflicult  to  define  his  present  state.  With  his  severance 
from  the  Southern    churches,  he    no  longer    desired  the 


THE  NEGRO   PROBLEM.  101 

instructions  and  spiritual  oversight  of  their  ministers, 
but  sought  out  and  obtained,  without  difficulty,  spir- 
itual guides  among  his  own  race,  who  have  generally 
"  darkened  counsel,"  and  led  him  into  error  and  untruth, 
more  hurtful  and  damaging  than  would  have  been  the 
absence  of  all  privilege  and  religious  effort.  There  seems 
to  be  among  them  a  penchant  for  preaching.  Their 
ambition  and  aspirations  seem  to  lead  them  in  that  way. 
It  is  not  unfrequently  the  case,  that  the  most  ignorant 
and  immoral  among  them,  whose  total  unfitness  for  the 
sacred  ofiice  is  manifest  to  all  of  them,  are  called  to 
ministerial  functions,  and  enter  upon  them  without  any  ap- 
parent change  in  moral  conduct,  yet  wholly  acceptable 
to  the  flock  they  may  serve.  Nearly  all  the  colored 
politicians,  if  not  engaged  in  preaching  before  their  ad- 
vent into  politics,  soon  become  preachers,  and  are  doubt- 
less prompted  to  do  so  from  seeing  the  influence  wielded 
by  those  who  exercise  the  latter  office,  and  thus  com- 
bine the  two  to  increase  their  popularity  and  add  to  their 
personal  aggrandisement.  Out  of  the  number  of  an  half 
dozen  within  our  acquaintance,  we  do  not  know  more  than 
one  who  bears  an  unexceptional  moral  character.  If  the 
sources  of  information  that  come  to  us  through  their  own 
people  are  trust-worthy,  we  are  led  by  it  to  the  belief  that 
their  preachers  are  very  often  the  worst  men  among  them 
— below  the  moral  level  of  the  average  negro — to  which 
must  be  added  the  greater  sin  of  sacrilege.  The  better 
class  of  their  preachers,  who  are  no  doubt  sincere  and 
honest  in  their  calling,  rarely  evince  any  ability  or  disposition 
to  inculcate  a  moral  principle  or  fix  a  religious  truth  in  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  their  hearers.  Their  preachers  being 
ignorant  men,  who  know  nothing  of  analyzing  a  principle 
or  illustrating  a  scriptural  truth,  address  their  people  in  pas- 
sionate utterances,  with  vehemence  of  manner,  until  both 
preacher  and  audience  are  wrought  up  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  excitement,  which,  in  cooling  down,  leaves  no  ingrafting 
of  the  Word,  to  take  hold  upon  the  heart  and  moral  nature, 


102  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

and  strengthen  them  for  the  trials  and  temptations  that 
come  afterwards.  To  attend  or  pass  near  one  of  their  re- 
ligious meetings,  one  cannot  be  otherwise  than  impressed, 
when  their  feeUngs  are  fully  wrought  upon,  with  the  deep 
earnestness  that  characterizes  their  worship.  The  kind  of 
services  that  are  quiet  and  undemonstrative,  seem  to  impress 
them  but  little,  and  they  will  remain  listless  and  very  fre- 
quently go  to  sleep,  if  the  order  is  not  changed.  Singing 
in  the  loud  stentorian  tenor  that  they  usually  render  it  in, 
seems  to  raise  them  to  the  pathetic  and  rapturous  state 
of  feeling  at  once,  and  then,  after  napping  over  the 
sermon,  they  will  rise  with  the  song  and  enjoy  an  ecstacy  of 
feeling,  that  is  given  vent  to  in  the  wildest  and  most 
labored  vociferatioon. 

If  we  consider  the  character  of  their  worship,  the  spirit 
that  pervades  it,  and  the  blind  and  incompetent  leaders 
who  are  called  to  their  religious  instruction  and  over- 
sight, we  are  not  surprised  to  find  them  retrograding, 
and  tending  in  a  course  that  will  lead  them  away  from 
the  true  worship  into  error  and  superstition  of  the  grossest 
kind.  Those  of  our  people  who  have  taken  any  pains 
to  look  into  the  present  religious  state  of  the  negro, 
cannot  but  see  that  the  true  spirit  of  worship  is  being 
perverted  and  corrupted  to  an  extent  already,  that  is 
really  alarming  to  those  who  can  feel  any  interest  in 
their  well-being.  With  nearly  the  whole  adult  popula 
tion  in  the  church,  with  a  punctuality  in  attendance  upon 
religious  service  exceeding  that  of  the  white  members 
of  the  church,  and  with  seemingly  the  highest  state  of 
religious  enjoyment,  yet  we  see  no  improvement  in  moral 
conduct,  no  diminution  of  crime,  no  sense  of  the  degra- 
dation it  should  bring  to  the  race,  to  give  hope  that 
ameliorating  agencies  were  at  work  to  raise  them  to  the 
plane  of  a  better  life.  We  have  already  referred  to  the 
depravity  that  led  them  to  acts  of  wrong-doing  when 
free  from  any  exciting  cause,  and  it  is  no  less  true  that 
this  uncontrollable  tendency  to  evil  deeds  supervenes  so 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  1C3 

closely  upon  their  religious  excitement,  as  to  divest  the 
latter  of  any  moral  effect  whatever.  It  is  said,  and  the 
often  repetition  gives  it  claims  to  credulity,  that  these 
people,  in  returning  from  church,  with  their  feelings 
scarcely  cooled  down  from  the  fervor  and  glow  of  reli- 
gious excitement,  will  descend  to  the  low  and  debasing 
practice  of  the  sexual  sin,  which  their  incontinent  nature 
leads  them  to  commit.  The  moral  faculty  we  call  con- 
science, seems  to  be  held  in  a  state  of  abeyance,  if  not 
one  of  utter  extinction.  There  is,  no  doubt,  in  their 
moral  nature  the  germ  of  a  conscience,  but  it  has  been  so 
little  cultivated  and  improved  upon,  and  so  often  abused, 
in  that  class  of  vices  particularly,  that  have  an  origin  in 
mere  animal  instincts,  that  it  is  rarely  quickened  into  life 
so  as  to  offer  any  restraint  upon  the  practice  of  their 
besetting  sins.  And  herein  lies  the  difficulty  of  intro- 
ducing any  wholesome  and  permanent  reformation  upon 
the  moral  and  religious  character  of  the  negro  race. 
The  instincts  of  his  animal  nature  are  so  strong  as  to  de- 
stroy anything  like  an  equilibrium  between  it  and  the 
moral  sense,  and  hence  the  will-power,  which  asserts  itself 
in  the  white  race  and  gives  them  ability  to  determine  and 
act,  whether  right  or  wrong,  is  so  weak  in  the  negro's 
nature,  as  to  rarely  assert  itself  in  shaping  and  determining 
a  moral  action. 

It  is  evident  that  the  negro  is  corrupting  the  form,  as 
well  as  perverting  the  true  spirit,  of  worship,  by  introdu- 
cing secular  elem.ents  that  must  soon  weaken  and  destroy 
his  respect  and  regard  for  the  church  as  a  sacred  institu- 
tion. Soon  after  his  investment  with  political  rights,  he 
began  to  mingle  politics  and  religion  at  the  church — ma- 
king a  hobby  of  first  one  and  then  the  other — often  so 
confounding  the  two  as  to  be  in  doubt  which  had  the 
higher  claim  upon  his  homage.  Their  churches  (particu- 
larly in  the  country)  have  been,  during  political  campaigns, 
a  sort  of  conclave,  where  they  met  for  the  purpose  of  party 
drill,   and  arrange  for  carrying  out  the  designs  of  their 


104  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

party  leaders.  If  they  are  free  from  political  excitement, 
some  other  secular  interest,  or  caprice,  that  engages  their 
attention  collectively,  takes  its  place,  and  is  brought  for- 
ward as  a  matter  belonging  to  the  church,  and  considered 
with  the  same  gravity  as  if  it  was  in  reality  a  religious  duty. 
It  appears  that  the  disciphne  which  obtains  in  their  churches, 
amounts  almost  to  a  nullity,  owing  to  their  lax  and  imper- 
fect ideas  of  moral  principles,  and  total  v/ant  of  adminis- 
trative capacity. 

The  inconsistencies  that  are  so  glaring  and  palpable  in 
the  profession  and  practice  of  religion,  are,  we  think,  not 
so  much  a  thing  of  design  and  purpose,  as  it  is  a  want:  of 
moral  perception,  and  the  positive  virtue  of  moral  courage. 
The  whole  race  seems  to  view  religion  as  something  apart 
from,  and  independent  of,  moral  principle,  and  the  Deca- 
logue itself  as  an  obsolete  code  or  unmeaning  something, 
of  no  more  efficacy  or  binding  force  than  the  ceremonial 
law  of  the  Mosaic  period  is  to  the  people  of  the  Christian 
era.  Hypocrisy,  that  very  often  seeks  to  veil  the  moral 
obligations  of  religious  people,  in  a  sphere  above  the 
negro,  and  where  it  may  be  practiced  with  so  much  art 
and  skill  as  to  "deceive  the  very  elect,"  is  not  the  beset- 
ting sin  of  the  negro.  In  his  religion,  as  in  his  vices,  he 
is  true  to  nature  and  follows  her  promptings.  The  negro, 
even  of  mature  years,  needs  moral  training  and  discipline 
like  the  child,  in  a  way  that  he  can  understand.  Simple 
moral  truths,  such  as  are  taught  in  the  child's  catechism, 
(though  it  need  not  be  in  that  form,)  should  be  presented 
to  him  in  the  way  of  preaching,  lecturing,  or  other  form 
that  will  impress  them  upon  his  understanding,  and  form 
the  basis  of  a  moral  character  upon  vviiich  may  be  founded 
a  religion  of  substance  and  reality. 

In  portraying  the  state  of  morals,  and  that  of  religion, 
that  exists  among  the  negroes  at  the  South,  we  have  en- 
deavored to  avoid  anything  like  suppositions  or  exaggera- 
ted statements,  founding  the  views  expressed  upon  facts 
that  came  to  us  from  what  we  deemed  trustv/orthy  sources, 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  105 

and,  for  the  most  part,  that  class  of  facts  that  come  within 
the  knowledge  of  every  Southern  man,  who  has  give" 
any  thought  to  the  subject,  and  has  had  opportunity  for 
observation.  Christianity,  we  are  taught,  is  a  primary 
element  of  progress,  and  if  the  state  of  religion  that  ob- 
tains among  our  Southern  negro  population  is  likely  to  be- 
come so  perverted,  and  so  utterly  demoralized,  as  to  deprive 
it  of  its  inherent  force  and  vitality,  it  then  becomes  a  seri- 
ous question  for  the  religious  mind  of  the  South,  whether 
missionary  effort  should  not  be  directed  in  its  behalf. 

Laying  aside  the  promptings  of  Christian  philanthropy, 
and  viewing  the  condition  of  the  negro  in  a  cold,  abstract 
sense,  we  might  say  that  we  are  not  responsible  for  his 
morals,  or  his  condition,  nor  should  have  any  concern  for 
his  proper  religious  training,  or  his  destiny  beyond  the 
present  life.  The  negro,  it  is  true,  desires  those  of  his 
own  race  to  be  his  spiritual  advisers,  and  has  withdrawn 
and  stands  aloof  in  religion,  as  well  as  in  politics,  from 
the  contact  and  teachings  of  the  white  man.  But  this 
may  be  said  of  any  race  or  people  who  have  a  religion  of 
their  own,  or  who  desire  teachers  and  leaders  of  the  kin- 
dred race.  To  apply  this  argument  in  a  general  sense, 
would,  in  effect,  stop  all  missionary  effort,  and  suspend 
the  aggressive  forces  of  Christianity.  If  missionary  labor 
in  behalf  of  the  Southern  blacks  were  needful  and  benefi- 
cial before  their  m.anumission,  (as  we  have  already  shown 
that  they  were  liberally  expended,  with  the  most  encoura- 
ging results,)  certainly  the  demand  is  as  great,  and  the 
field  as  inviting,  now  as  then.  The  chief  difficulties  that 
seem  to  present  themselves  in  the  way  of  our  Southern 
churches,  in  resuming  their  former  relation  to  the  negro 
race,  and  the  work  it  involved,  are:  First,  the  indisposi- 
tion, on  'the  part  of  the  negroes,  to  accept  such  gratuitous 
labors  in  their  behalf;  and,  secondly,  the  want  of  means 
to  carry  on  such  enterprises.  These  obstacles,  if  properly 
examined,  will  be  found  to  be  apparent  rather  than  real. 
The  first,  we  suppose,  is  always  encountered  in  missionary 


lOG  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

labors  in  foreign  lands,  where  a  new  system  of  religion  is 
to  be  planted  upon  the  uprooting  and  removal  of  an  old 
one.  In  the  case  of  the  Southern  negro,  the  trouble  does 
not  arise  from  any  conflict  of  religious  opinion,  but  merely 
supposed  prejudice  against  the  source  from  which  mission- 
ary labors  in  his  interest  would  come.  The  negro  is  docile 
and  submissive  in  disposition,  is  not  very  tenacious  in  his 
opinion,  and  his  race  feeling  will  very  probably  yield,  to 
some  extent,  and  far  enough  to  accept  the  kind  and  un- 
selfish offers  of  religious  aid  from  Southern  churches. 
The  second  difficulty  stated,  is  that  of  a  want  of  means  to 
carry  on  anything  like  an  organized  and  systematic  reli- 
gious work  among  the  blacks  of  the  South.  It  is  true 
that  our  Southern  churches,  as  to  monied  resources,  but 
reflect  the  condition  of  our  people,  are  straitened  in  cir- 
cumstances, and  not  more  than  able  to  support  their  min- 
istry, and  carry  on  the  missionary  and  other  enterprises 
they  have  in  hand.  While  we  do  not  deem  it  proper  to 
discuss,  in  this  paper,  the  ways  and  means  by  which  our 
people  may  inaugurate  and  carry  on  schemes  for  the  moral 
and  religious  improvement  of  the  colored  race  in  their 
midst,  yet  we  can  state,  with  some  degree  of  assurance, 
that  if  the  Christian  mind  of  the  South  is  convinced  of 
the  fact  that  these  people,  in  their  present  isolated  and 
somewhat  neglected  condition,  are  drifting  away  from  the 
moorings  of  Christianity,^  that  liberal  and  energetic  plans 
will  be  devised,  commensurate  with  the  task  to  be  accom- 
plished. Any  other  supposition  upon  the  probable  course 
our  people  may  take,  in  a  matter  of  such  deep  concern, 
would  do  violence  to  that  liberal  and  enlightened  Christian 
sentiment  that  so  thoroughly  pervades  them.  These  peo- 
ple, though  of  a  different  race,  and  socially  ostracised  from 
us,  and  though  they  have  justly  incurred  our  displeasure 
in  an  alliance  with  our  political  foe  in  his  efforts  to  impov- 
erish, insult  and  degrade  us,  still  they  are  endeared  to  us 
by  strong  ties  in  the  past ;  for  willing  obedience,  for  faith- 
ful service,  for  tender  and  loyal  attachment  as  long  as  the 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  107 

relation  of  master  and  servant  existed.  They  have  been 
temporarily  alienated  from  us,  by  appeal  and  argument 
presented  to  them  in  such  way  that  we  could  not  reasona- 
bly expect  them  to  resist  it.  They  are  still — the  great 
mass  of  them — homeless  and  dependent,  upon  our  lands, 
at  our  doors,  and  around  our  firesides,  as  laborers  and 
household  servants.  They  are  not  only  near  us,  but  as 
entirely  dependent  upon  us  now  as  they  were  in  a  state  of 
slavery.  As  to  all  means  of  securing  within  themselves 
proper  religious  instruction,  and  as  to  energy  and  self-di- 
recting power,  they  are  but  children,  and  must  find  the 
needed  aid  elsewhere,  or  suffer  its  deprivation.  From  our 
relation  to  them  in  the  present,  as  well  as  past,  arises  an 
obligation  at  once  imperative,  and,  to  us,  of  solemn  and 
momentous  significance,  to  make  provision  for  their  moral 
advancement,  to  the  extent  that  we  are  able,  even  if  it 
should  require  the  abandonment  of  foreign  missionary 
fields.  The  question  we  are  discussing  in  this  connection, 
is  entirely  new,  not  having  been  raised  in  the  religious 
press,  or  noticed  elsewhere,  as  we  have  seen,  but  it  will 
very  probably,  at  an  early  day,  assume  shape  and  propor- 
tion that  will  bring  it  into  prominence  as  one  of  real,  if 
not  of  vital  importance. 

If  it  should  be  found  upon  survey,  and  a  careful  exami- 
nation of  the  field,  that  there  are  real  and  urgent  grounds 
for  interposing  religious  effort  by  our  Southern  Christian 
people,  in  behalf  of  the  negro,  then  the  work  should  begin 
in  earnest,  else  efforts  by  other  people  will  be  aimed  in  that 
direction.  The  Methodist  church,  (North,)  though  foiled 
and  discomfitted  in  a  measure,  has  not,  we  opine,  aban- 
doned its  long-cherished  object  of  absorbing  the  Southern 
negro  in  its  organization.  The  meagre  success  attained  at 
a  few  points,  gives  it  encouragement  to  hold  them,  and 
will  doubtless  in  the  future  prosecute  their  work  of  evan- 
gelizing the  Southern  blacks  with  more  zealous  efforts  than 
in  the  past.  If  the  past  and  present  animus  of  this  church 
was  such  as  to  give  assurance  that  the  Christian  labors  it 


108  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

might  expend  in  the  South  in  the  future  would  be  free  from 
the  contaminating  influence  of  pohtics,  and  the  more  odi- 
ous doctrine  of  social  equality,  we  could  welcome  them 
in  our  midst,  and  bid  them  good  speed ;  but  we  can  have 
no  guaranty  whatever  that  such  will  be  the  case.  If  this 
church  should  establish  a  permanent  hold  in  the  South, 
v*ith  extensive  ramifications  in  its  work  of  evangelizing  the 
colored  race,  though  the  effort  might  be  attended  witli  but 
little  success,  yet  the  opportunity  for  operating  upon  the 
prejudice  of  the  negro,  and  fermenting  discord,  would  be 
too  inviting  for  that  pragmatic  and  busy  people  to  neglect. 
It  has  been  repeatedly  stated  within  the  last  year  or  two, 
in  the  newspaper  press,  that  the  Catholics  have  designs 
upon  the  Southern  negroes,  and  are  maturing  plans  that 
are  not  merely  tentative,  or  experimental,  but  systematic 
and  far-reaching — leaving  out  of  calculation  for  success  no 
factor  that  would  be  considered  necessary  to  attain  it.  The 
preparation  for  this  special  work  at  the  South  is  said  to  em- 
brace, as  the  first  step,  the  education  of  fifty  young  colored 
men  in  the  Papal  collegts  at'Rome,  with  special  training  in 
the  Jesuitical  orders,  who,  operating  with  their  own  color  at 
the  South,  having  peculiar  advantages  of  access,  and 
sympathy  of  race,  as  well  as  fitness  for  the  task,  wo'uld 
constitute  a  working  force  that  Avould  seem  to  give,  upon 
the  very  threshold  of  the  movement,  the  most  favorable 
augery  of  success.  Whatever  may  be  alleged  against  the 
Roman  church  in  the  propagation  of  its  doctrine  and  tenets 
in  the  past,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  same  earnestness 
and  fixedness  of  purpose  actuates  it  to-day  that  it  did  in 
any  period  of  its  eventful  history  in  the  past.  The  fiery 
zeal,  the  assertion  and  use  of  temporal  power,  the  terrible 
inquisition  with  its  instruments  of  torture — the  rack,  the 
thumb-screw,  and  the  stake — as  means  to  subserve  its  ends, 
have,  under  the  better  influences  of  modern  civilization,  as 
well  as  lessons  of  wisdom  taught  it  by  the  logic  of  events, 
been  abandoned  for  more  peaceful,  but  no  less  effective 
agencies.     It  is  establishing  colleges  and  asylums,  we  see, 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  109 

in  almost  every  State  in  the  Union,  is  carrying  on  a  benefi- 
cent and  commendable  work  in  educating  orphan  and  pau- 
per children  wherever  it  can  gather  them  up,  and  is,  doubt- 
less, doing  as  much,  if  not  more,  charitable  and  philanthropic 
labor  in  the  interest  of  suffering  humanity  in  the  United 
States  than  the  Protestant  churches  combined.  The  liberal 
and  enlightened  policy  pursued  by  this  church  in  our  own 
country,  with  its  constantly  widening  field  of  charitable 
work,  is  fast  removing  the  prejudices  and  the  traditional 
animosity  that  formerly  existed  in  the  minds  of  Protestants, 
and  we  find  to-day  a  feeling  of  tolerance,  if  not  of  appro- 
bation, towards  its  seeming  progressive  course  in  the  United 
States. 

If  our  Protestant  churches  in  the  South,  upon  a  careful 
survey  of  the  field,  shall  not  deem  it  expedient,  or  desira- 
ble to  enter  upon  the  work  of  re-establishing  thc'r  former 
relation  to  the  Southern  blacks,  either  partially,  in  an 
advisory  capacity,  or  wholly,  by  incorporating  them  into 
their  churches  and  furnishing  them  ministerial  aid,  then 
the  next  best  service  that  could  be  rendered  to  the  negro 
would  be  an  acquiescence  in,  if  not  an  encouragement  of, 
his  absorption  into  the  Catholic  Church. 

It  may  be  asked  what  good  would  result  from  an  incor- 
poration of  the  Southern  negro  into  the  Catholic  Church, 
either  to  the  negro  himself  or  to  society  at  large.  We 
would  answer  by  saying  that  it  is  the  form  of  worship  best 
suited  to  the  negro,  though  it  may  be  in  the  greatest  de- 
gree objectionable,  as  a  religion  suitable  and  adapted  to  a. 
highly  intelligent  and  reasoning  people.  The  splendid  ritual 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  with  its  imposing  ceremonies,  its 
pomp  and  pageantry,  and  the  impressive  devotional  feature 
in  the  worship,  would  strike  the  negro  with  force,  inspire 
him  with  awe,  and  awaken  in  his  mind  a  reverence  for  sa- 
cred things,  that  no  other  form  of  worship,  in  his  present 
mental  and  moral  condition,  could  do.  We  have  always  felt 
doubt  about  the  capacity  of  the  great  mass  of  the  negro  race 
to  comprehend  the  plan  of  salvation,  as  it  has  been  usually 


110  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

taught  them.  We  never  heard  a  negro  preacher  explain  it  in 
such  way  as  to  lead  us  to  believe  that  he  had  any  proper 
conceptions  of  it  himself,  much  less  the  gift  to  impart  cor- 
rect ideas  of  it  to  others.  The  emotional  part  of  the  negro's 
nature  seems  to  be  powerfully  wrought  up,  in  the  act  of 
worship,  while  other  faculties  remain  comparatively  dor- 
mant— but  little  acted  upon  in  the  worship  itself,  or  as 
evidenced  by  any  marked  effect  afterwards.  We  can  place 
no  high  estimate  upon  that  kind  of  religion  that  acts 
merely  upon  the  emotional  part  of  man's  nature,  that  does 
not  take  hold  upon  the  intellect  in  convincing  reason,  in 
subduing  the  will,  and  bringing  the  whole  man  in  captivity 
to  its  rule.  If  the  negro,  either  by  his  natural  endowment 
or  state  of  ignorance,  cannot  receive  the  most  profit  by 
forms  of  worship  or  systems  of  religion  as  usually  taught 
to  more  rational  and  intelligent  people,  as  suited  to  their 
nature  and  understanding,  then  would  it  not  seem  more 
in  accordance  with  the  fitness  of  things  that  the  great  and 
essential  truths  of  divinity  should  be  imparted  to  him  in  a 
more  simple  form  ? 

It  has  been  alleged  as  a  ground  of  objection  to  the 
Catholic  Church,  that  it  encourages  in  a  measure,  if  it  does 
not  directly  practice,  a  species  of  idolatry  in  presenting 
conspicuously  in  their  churches  pictures,  statuary  and 
relics  of  sacred  personages,  which  leads  to  object  worship, 
rather  than  the  true  spiritual  worship  that  should  alone 
engage  the  thought  and  inspire  the  homage  of  Christian 
people.  We  would  not  here  be  understood  as  attempting 
any  defense  of  the  Catholic  religion,  or  appear  as  an 
apologist  for  the  objectionable  feature  just  stated,  yet 
when  viewed  under  particular  circumstances,  as  a  question 
of  ecclesiastical  policy,  it  is  supported  by  reasons  that 
seem  cogent  and  conclusive.  There  is,  and  always  has 
been,  outside  of  the  clergy,  a  large  element  of  ignorance 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  and  doubtless  the  visible  repre- 
sentation by  art  of  truth  to  be  imparted,  especially  to  the 
ignorant  and  unreasoning  class,  would,  if  not  greatly  aided 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  Ill 

by  such  associations,  at  least,  tend  to  awaken  a  deeper 
reverence  for  sacred  things,  and  produce  a  feeling  in  har- 
mony with  devotional  exercise.  How  the  images  in  their 
sacred  books,  the  statues  upon  their  altars,  and  other  art 
illustrations  of  the  Divine  idea  are  to  represent  it  to  the 
senses  of  the  worshipper,  has,  we  believe,  never  been  de- 
clared, ex  cathedra,  or  explained  by  Catholic  writers,  that 
we  have  seen.'  If  any  people  who  are  the  subjects  of  re- 
ligious teachings  cannot  embrace  truth  in  the  abstract, 
when  it  is  necessary  to  be  received  by  them  as  the  foun- 
dation of  a  belief  in  Christianity,  and  as  a  basis  of  moral 
and  religious  character,  and  which  is  further  necessary  to 
fit  them  for  a  reception  into  religious  society,  then  the  sim- 
pler forms  of  imparting  such  truths,  if  they  are  to  receive 
it  at  all,  must  be  resorted  to.  And  again,  if  the  great 
truths  of  the  gospel  necessary  for  the  negro  to  embrace, 
as  the  initial  point  of  all  moral  improvement,  or  any  ad- 
vance in  religious  life,  cannot  be  grasped  by  reason,  where 
his  reasoning  /acuity,  from  any  cause,  cannot  perform  the 
necessary  office,  then  systematic  representation  of  such 
truths,  if  it  will  aid  him  in  their  acquisition,  would  seem, 
to  that  extent,  allowable,  even  by  those  who  hold  to  anti- 
Catholic  views  on  this  particular  subject. 

While  the  Papal  system  of  religion,  with  its  forms  of 
worship,  is  well  adapted  to  the  negro's  nature  and  condition 
in  life,  it  would,  in  the  second  place,  retain  him  more  securely 
within  its  organization,  and  more  effectually  control  him,  not 
only  in  matters  of  religion,  but  in  his  civil  relations,  than 
any  other  religious  organization.  There  seems  to  be  a  con- 
servative power  inherent  in  the  Catholic  Church  that  is 
alone  peculiar  to  it,  and  has  preserved  it  for  fifteen  centu- 
ries from  discord,  schism  and  internal  weakness,  that  has 
so  often  been  the  bane  of  other  systems  of  religion.  This, 
doubtless,  springs  from  its  peculiar  organization  as  an  eccle- 
siastical body,  the  implicit  obedience  it  exacts  to  its  man- 
dates, and  the  sublime  faith  which  in  some  mysterious  way 
it  inspires  its  members  with  in  the  truth  and  power  of  its 


112  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

mission  as  a  church.  Its  temporal  policy  in  the  matter  of 
discipline  does  not^  recognize  expulsion  from  the  church 
as  a  proper  method  of  dealing  with  immoral  members,  as 
long  as  they  may  be  true  to  the  CathoHc  faith.  It  main- 
tains that  the  communicant  cannot  be  alienated  from  the 
church  only  upon  grounds  of  heresy,  and  that  it  is  the 
appropriate  work  of  the  church  to  carry  on  the  process  of 
reformation  in  the  life  and  character  of  its  members,  how- 
ever^deeply  stained  with  sin  that  of  any  offending  member 
may  be.  And  by  holding  the  negro  securely  in  its  folds, 
it  would  not  only  begin  a  work  of  reformation  upon  him, 
but  one  of  charity,  and  not  only  philanthropy,  in  his  behalf, 
that  is  greatly  needed  at,times  and  places  where  he  is  often 
neglected,  even  by  his  own  race.  If  it  did  not  impart  a 
growth  in  morals,  and  put  him  on  a  line  of  religious  pro- 
gression, it  would  arrest  at  least  a  farther  decline,  and  pre- 
vent his  drifting  back  to  pagan  rites,  as  he  is  prone  to  do, 
when  left  to  his  own  spiritual  guidance. 

While  we  of  the  South  have  been  correctly  taught  that 
religion  is  something  too  sacred  to  be  connected  with  the 
policies  of  civil  government,  or  to  be  controlled  in  any  way 
by  secular  considerations,  yet,  in  endeavoring  to  work  out 
the  problem  that  presents  itself  to  the  Southern  people,  in 
connection  with  the  negro  race,  no  factor  should  be  omitted 
that  could  be  considered  necessary  to  its  solution.  Con- 
temporaneous, or  modern  history,  presents  no  parallel  case, 
with  analogies  that  assimilate  it  in  essential  particulars,  to 
that  which  now  exists  at  the  South.  The  case  of  the  Moors, 
in  Spain,  where  two  distinct  races,  nearly  equally  divided 
as  to  numbers,  disputed  for  the  supremacy  of  race  for  eight 
centuries,  resulting  in  the  final  overthrow  and  expulsion  of 
the  Moors,  approximates  the  situation  in  the  South  nearer 
than  any  other,  perhaps,  in  the  whole  range  of  history. 
We  state  here,  that  we  are  very  far  from  attempting  to  con- 
tribute to  anything  like  a  sensational  feeling  upon  this  par- 
ticular point,  as  the  reader  has,  doubtless,  observed  that 
we  have  dealt  in  a  spirit  of  candor  in  our  preceding  remarks 


THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  113 

upon  every  phase  of  the  negro  question  that  has  presented 
itself.  It  is  by  a  statement  of  known  facts,  and  a  fair  and 
candid  interpretation  of  them,  following  their  necessary 
logical  sequence,  that  we  can  reach  rational  and  satisfactory 
conclusions  upon  any  question  that  may  be  presented. 
And  every  thoughtful  man  must  see  that  the  ten  years  of 
freedom  to  the  negroes  in  our  midst,  with  the  present  gen- 
eration-of  them  under  the  restraints  of  slavery,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  yielding  obedience  and  deference  to  the  whites,  by 
force  of  habit,  which  will  be  completely  obliterated  in  the 
next  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  serves  but  little  now  in  indi- 
cating the  state  of  feeling  and  attitude  that  he  may  assume 
towards  the  Southern  whites  at  the  close  of  that  period. 

It  has  been  doubtless  generally  observed,  that  there  ex- 
ists between  the  boys  of  the  two  races  a  feeling  of  antag- 
onism, growing  more  apparent  every  year,  and  which  every 
man  now  thirty  years  old  recollects  very  distinctly  as  not 
having  existed  in  the  intercourse  between  white  and  negro 
boys  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago.  This  fact  has  been  re- 
marked to  us  by  prudent,  clever,  colored  men,  who  express- 
ed the  belief  that  such  feeling  was  not  instilled  by  colored 
parents  in  the  minds  of  their  children,  and  were  at  a  loss 
to  account  for  it.  This  thing  is  not  dependent  upon  the 
training  and  discipline  of  the  boys,  but  is  governed  by  an 
ethnological  law  which  asserts  itself  in  this  particular,  and 
produces  results  as  clearly  and  unmistakeably  as  does  the 
race  law  develop  any  other  class  of  facts.  We  quote  here 
an  utterance  of  Fred  Douglass,  made  before  the  National 
Colored  Convention  at  Washington,  in  1875,  not  for  any 
truth  that  it  contains,  but  to  show  the  spirit  that,  no 
doubt,  does,  to  some  extent,  pervade  "the  rising  genera- 
tion." He  says :  "The  rising  generation  are  as  brave  and 
daring  as  are  the  white  men.  Already  this  spirit  is  taking 
deep  root  in  the  minds  of  thousands,  who  have  nothing 
to  lose  in  the  contest,  and  who  would  rejoice  to  sacrifice 
their  Hves  for  their  liberty."  (He  doubtless  meant  equal- 
ity.) 


114  THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

There  must  be,  in  the  nature  of  things,  a  degree  of 
social  ostracism,  that  will  keep  the  negro  in  his  natural 
and  proper  sphere.  This  separation,  however,  need  not 
obtain  in  matters  of  religion,  to  the  same  extent,  or  in  the 
same  sense,  that  must  necessarily  occur  in  social  and  polit- 
ical life.  One  of  the  chief  dangers  that  we  may  appre- 
hend in  the  future,  arises  from  the  continued  segregation 
of  the  negro  race  into  religious  society  exclusively  their 
own,  which  would  show  to  them  their  complete  isolation^ 
where  all  the  evil  influences  of  mere  race-feeling  would 
operate  upon  them  to  the  fullest  extent.  An  insuperable 
caste  on  account  of  their  origin,  color,  and  physical  for- 
mation, will  always  separate  them,  socially,  from  the  whites. 
They  will  be  excluded  from  public  office,  its  honors  and 
emoluments ;  and  if  religion,  whose  mission  and  office  arc 
to  purify  the  heart  of  man,  and  fill  it  with  peace,  love  and 
charity  towards  all  mankind,  should  fail  to  show  any  con- 
necting link  between  the  two  races,  then,  indeed,  the 
negro  would  feel  that  he  was  a  veritable  "  Pariah, "  and 
every  white  man's  hand  against  him. 

While  the  great  mass  of  this  race  will  very  probably  re- 
main in  a  state  of  ignorance  for  successive  generations,  num- 
bers will  be  educated,  which  will  stimulate  their  pride  and 
aAvaken  new  aspirations,  and,  finding  a  superior,  and  the 
ruling  race  above  them,  whose  sphere  cannot  be  attained, 
on  account  of  caste,  will  cause  them  to  agitate  foolish  and 
impracticable  questions,  which  will  beget  a  restive,  jealous, 
and  dissatisfied  spirit  among  the  masses,  that  must  make 
society,  in  the  future,  more  disorderly  and  insecure  than 
at  present.  For  obvious  reasons,  therefore,  the  white 
people  should  pursue  a  just,  kind,  and  conciliatory  course 
toward  the  negro  in  the  private  relations  of  life,  and  in 
those  connections  in  which  the  negro  can  feel  a  sense  of 
public  justice  towards  him,  and  interest  in  his  behalf,  such 
as  grow  out  of  legislation,  the  administration  of  public 
law,  and  in  matters  of  religion,  a  conservative  influence 
may  be  wielded  that  would  tend  to  allay  much  of  the 
trouble  that  might  arise  in  the  future. 


THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM.  115 

In  this  seeming  digression  from  the  subject  that  we  were 
discussing  antecedently,  we  have  enlarged  upon  the  possi- 
ble dangers  that  may  arise  in  the  future,  in  order  to  show 
the  necessity  of  putting  into  operation  those  moral  in- 
fluences that  would  redound  to  the  well-being  of  the  negro 
race,  and  tend  to  a  conservatism  of  peace,  order,  and  the 
best  interest  of  Southern  society.  We  have  endeavored 
to  show  that  the  Catholic  Church,  next  to  our  Southern 
Protestant  Churches,  was  the  best  agency  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  such  desirable  results. 

There  has  been  repeated  attempts  in  the  past,  and  are, 
during  the  present  year,  to  excite  the  fears  and  inflame 
the  prejudices  of  the  American  people  against  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  upon  the  assumption  that  it  would  endeavor 
to  gain  poh'tical  power,  and  wield  it,  ultimately,  to  the 
subversion  of  religious  liberty  in  our  country.  We  are 
gratified  in  knowing  that  this  spirit  of  intolerance  has  been 
confined  to  Northern  latitudes,  and  that  our  Southern  peo- 
ple, who  take  broad  and  catholic  views  of  religious  lib- 
erty, have  shared  but  to  a  very  small  extent  in  such  spirit. 

The  course  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States 
has  been  eminently  conservative,  as  every  reading  man 
knows.  It  has  not  only  abstained  from  all  interference  in 
political  affairs,  but  has  seemed  to  be  less  agitated  and 
wrought  upon  by  political  excitement  in  the  past,  than 
any  other  religious  society  in  the  country.  Nearly  all  the 
Protestant  denominations  at  the  North,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  late  war,  and  we  might  say  ten  years  preceding, 
gave  decided  and  emphatic  expression  upon  the  political  is- 
sues then  dividing  the  country.  Catholics,North  and  South, 
engaged  in  the  late  war  just  as  the  people  of  other  religious 
denominations,  and  were  no  doubt  just  as  loyal  to  their 
respective  governments  as  others,  but  we  have  yet  to  learn 
that  the  Catholic  Church  was  exercised  by  the  bitter  war 
feeling  that  pervaded  other  churches  to  the  close  of  hostilities. 
The  Catholics  in  the  Southern  States  are  fully  identified 
with  the  great  body  of  Southern  society,  not  only  as  to 


116  THE   NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

national  interest,  but  upon  those  questions  that  have  a 
peculiar  social  and  political  significance.  There  can  be  no 
real  ground  of  apprehension,  that  if  this  Church  should 
espouse  the  cause  of  the  negro,  and  embrace  a  considera- 
ble portion  of  them  in  its  organization,  it  w^ould  wield  an 
influence  inimical  to  society,  but  on  the  other  hand  we  can 
be  reasonably  assured  that  the  whole  moral  power  of  this 
Church  would  be  brought  to  bear  in  controlling  the  negro 
in  the  interest  of  peace.  It  would  not  tolerate,  much  less 
favor,  any  pretensions  to  an  equality  of  races,  but  treat  the 
negro  simply  as  an  object  of  religious  instruction  and  im- 
provement, as  it  has  done  in  its  mission  fields  upon  the 
coast  of  Africa,  the  West  Indies  and  other  places  where  the 
African  race  has  been  the  subject  of  its  religious  enterprise. 
We  repeat:  It  our  Southern  Protestant  Churches,  for  any 
reasons,  should  not  engage  in  the  religious  work  that  seems 
necessary  to  meet  the  exigencies  in  the  case  of  the  South- 
ern negro,  and  if  the  two  great  evils  that  threaten  him  in 
the  future,  to  wit :  his  proclivity  to  drift  from  Christianity 
to  Paganism,  and  the  no  less  evil  of  his  attempted  absorp- 
tion into  the  Methodist  E.  Church  (North),  can  be  averted 
by  his  incorporation  into  the  Catholic  Church,  then  it  be- 
comes a  desideratum,  that  is  sanctioned  by  Christian  regard 
for  the  negro,  as  well  as  supported  by  considerations  of 
public  policy. 


This  book  is  due  at  the  LOUIS  R.  WILSON  LIBRARY  on  the 
last  date  stamped  under  "Date  Due  "  If  not  on  hold  it  may  be 
renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  library 

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